True Love
by Ayame-chan
Summary: A story dedicated to the infamous Yukishiro Enishi. Taking place right after the Revenge Arc, Enishi is found at Rakuninmura. There, he meets a woman. That woman will be the turning point of his life now and forever...[revising, Chp 6 done]
1. Introduction and Prologue

**AUTHOR'S NOTES **_(otherwise known as the lengthy introduction)_:

After four years of no updates, I have finally decided to continue this fanfic. Actually, after rereading the chapters, I am revising all the current chapters on here and finish it to the end. This means that I am taking out all the old chapters and re-uploading them with fresh, newly revised ones including ones that have not been included in the original, uncompleted version of "True Love". I noticed that there are a ton of flaws and I really want to make this a good fanfic, especially since there aren't that many Enishi-centric fanfics out there. This is probably due to the fact that the Revenge/Jinchuu arc is beginning to be released on a wide scale to anime fans where four years ago, the only way to actually get this arc not included in the anime was through scanslations and translations.

So, if you are new to this fanfic of mine, I bid you welcome and hope that you will bear with me for this long author's note. I warn that this deals in the aftermath of the Revenge/Jinchuu arc, so there are probably a great amount of spoilers that you might not have caught up with yet (or maybe you have...I haven't kept up with the English version of the manga for a while). I am also _horrible_ at updating, but I do plan to update this as often as possible -- which is most likely only going to be once every three to four weeks. Unlike how I wrote this four years ago (while I was still in high school and had no life whatsoever), I actually have more important things to worry about other than updating. I apologize in advance if you're too impatient to wait an entire month per update, but this is as much time as I can allow myself to.

If you are a former reader and have waited patiently for these past four years, I can't thank you enough for actually putting up with me. I actually had wanted to continue on where I left off all those years ago, but unfortunately life loves to intervene and for a while I had forgotten how much I loved Ruroken and particularly the Revenge/Jinchuu arc which Seisouhen unfortunately didn't go into as much detail.

For former readers (new readers, if you're curious to what the original looked like, please go to my website on my profile and to the discontinued fanfics section) here are some changes that you will see in this revised version:

- longer chapters - I typically write chapters the old fashioned way in a notebook in pencil before I type it up and post on here, my website, and Mediaminer. The original chapters were around 5-6 pages handwritten; these will be about 7-8 or more handwritten. You probably won't notice the difference, though, as they might probably look the same length as before (I have really tiny handwriting, so I can't ever tell if a chapter will be extremely long or not).

- less romanized Japanese - To be honest, it never occurred to me back then how much it would annoy people when mixing the two languages together. Now that I'm not in high school (the period in which I first plotted out and wrote "True Love") and have a bit of more years on me (not a lot, but hey, it's better than none), I realize that mixing languages _is _annoying to an extent. There will be the typical basics ("hai", "ie", "konnichiwa", etc.) included in here but that's as far as I will go. At the end of each chapter will be a glossary of unknown words for those who haven't caught up in the Japanese language.

- the ages of Rin, Ran, and Yumiko - Rin and Ran were originally three years old. Their ages in this new version will be four to five. Because of this, Yumiko's age is upgraded to 22 years old after I recalculated Enishi's age to around 24-25 years old if you consider that Tomoe died when he was only 10. Although, I could be wrong in his age.

- more character development - This might not have bugged some people, but it really bugged me how shallow my characters and the Ruroken cast were.

- extended timeline - In order to keep the plot going at a steady pace (this means that, yes, it's more chapters than the uncompleted original of 10; I had meant for the entire thing to be 14, but that's not going to happen this time...)

- Yumiko's family - Although I won't go into precise detail, you (as in the former readers) will notice that I've changed them a bit from the original.

And thus ends this rather lengthy author's note. The others won't be this long, I promise. Enjoy!

* * *

DISCLAIMERS: Rurouni Kenshin doesn't belong to me blah, blah, blah. It belongs to Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shonen Jump, blah, blah, blah. 

WARNINGS: Spoilers from the entire series. I'm following the manga storyline and not the anime storyline. You have been warned.

**-Rurouni Kenshin: True Love-**

_Prologue - A Time to Remember_

(Kyoto, Japan, 1916)

A solitary figure squatted in front of the stone slab, the object decorated with the engravings of four names behind it and a vase filled with white and violet irises and incense sticks that the figure had put in earlier. The figure just sat silently in front of the stone, dressed in a dark suit that looked brand new, a hat to cover the white color of his hair and sunglasses to hide the jade in his eyes. Memories, both good and bad, treaded across his mind as if he was rewinding time.

How long had it been since they met? How long was it when they each mended their hearts and lives?

How long had it been since he had this feeling of loss?

Although he could no longer use a sword or fight, the man still had his sixth sense as the shadow of another person approached him from behind. He glanced back at the younger man coming towards him who looked every bit the mirror image of his mother. Like the man, he too was dressed in a dark suit, although his jacket was unbuttoned and his shirt untucked.

"_Otousan_," the younger man said to him. "It's time to go."

"Ah, I was just about finished, anyway," the white-haired man said, struggling to stand up by putting the majority of his weight onto the wooden cane he had in his left hand. His younger companion quickly came to his aid.

"Hmph, my legs are just not what they used to be," he muttered as a gesture of gratitude.

The young man couldn't help but chuckle in amusement as they began their slow pace away from the stone slab.

"Since when did they **ever** work right, otousan?"

"Hush, boy, you sound like your mother when you say that."

"Well, at least I know where I get my sense of humor from."

As the father and son, or rather surrogate son but still his son nonetheless, continued on their path away from the site, the man began to reminisce to how it all happened: how they met, fell in love, and mended each other's hearts...

* * *

**GLOSSARY OF UNKNOWN WORDS:**

otousan - father


	2. Chp 1, First Meeting

**-Rurouni Kenshin: True Love-**

_Chapter One - First Meeting_

_Without becoming a resident of this place, once again a time to stand up is coming. Until then...think of this also as somehow being a chance meeting. Rest easy here._

----Oibore, Rurouni Kenshin Volume 28, Chapter 251 (taken from Serizawa Kamo's RuroKen Translation Index)

(Twenty years earlier, Tokyo, Japan - Rakuninmura Prefecture 1896)

The cheerful old man's, whom he later found out was called Oibore, words continued to repeat over and over again in Yukishiro Enishi's mind. He wasn't sure what to do now, now that he had read his sister's diary and knew the truth. At first, he couldn't believe the words written in the flimsy diary. At first, he thought that someone had forged his precious sister's handwriting to make him fall for the trick of believing them. But the delicate brushstrokes, the way the words seemed to perfectly portray her way of emotion matched everything that Enishi could remember about his sister. These were actually her words, thoughts, emotions, all the way to the day prior to her death sentence by Himura Battousai's hand. No, _inadvertently _by his hand.

It was so confusing. Everything he had done in order to get her revenge was now meaningless. Since the execution of his plans, nearly ten years worth of planning now were ten years wasted on something that didn't matter anymore. The police had destroyed his organization. His so-called comrades he lured in had been found and arrested. Gein, the man who had further developed his ideas, was dead. And the woman he had targeted to destroy Battousai's life was still alive, although he hadn't intended it to be that way. Every time he looked at Battousai's woman during the time he held her captive, he could see his sister's face replace hers.

The grip on the diary tightened again. Why was it so hard to let go? Why did it hurt so much to even think that even after Tomoe's death, the man who had inadvertently destroyed her -- and his -- life could be let go without so much of an equal punishment?

Enishi closed his eyes to find some solace in the pain. No, he couldn't think it like that anymore. Not after he heard _her _side of the story.

_What should I do now? _he wondered. _What **can **I do now?_

He felt as if he had lost the ability to picture his sister in his mind like he used to. After escaping from police custody and entering into this rundown area, the only remnant of his sister that he saw as a brief glimpse of her smile -- nothing more.

Enishi feared that he had lost sight of her ghost forever.

"Oh, Yumiko, you're back!"

His eyes snapped open at the voice, wondering to himself why he had opened them in the first place. He hadn't had any reaction to the locals of Rakuninmura other than the bothersome old man Oibore. His emerald eyes locked onto a young woman not far from where he sat slumped against the wall of a random building, talking to one of the locals -- another man around his age. However, he paid little attention to him and focused on the woman.

From what he could see, she had black hair that had been tied up and hid underneath the hat she wore. Her kimono was simple and a bit worn but that was to be expected from a place like Rakuninmura. Strapped on her back was a woven bag holding what seemed to be tree branches, although from his distance Enishi couldn't be sure. In her arms was a little girl sleeping and beside her was a little boy whose hand clung loosely on the lower half of the woman's kimono. The children looked no older than four, five at the most. In his non-intrusive way, Enishi looked away from them just enough so that he could still catch sight of them from the corner of his eye. Not that he was particularly interested, but something inside of him was curious as to how the woman sounded like.

He heard her laughter and for oddly enough, he liked the sound of it. It was soothing, her laugh.

"Yes, I am for a while," he heard her say in a soft voice. She shifted the girl in her arms to take out something that was in her sleeve. "Gen-san, here are the herbs that you wanted. How's your sister doing?"

He continued to watch her from the corner of his eye, oddly fascinated by her.

The man called Gen received the bag Yumiko held. "Oh, Ruri's doing fine. She's been a bit worried lately since you didn't return last week..."

As the two walked away, Enishi's gaze returned to the empty space in front of him, his stupor snapped which left him slightly disappointed. He frowned at himself. Why did he feel...empty? He didn't even know the woman and only watched from a distance -- if she ever ran into him he probably wouldn't even remember what she looked like. Only...her laughter, her voice soothed him. In that brief moment watching her and the other man, Enishi had forgotten about his confusion, his anger, his sadness.

He closed his eyes and tried to shrug off the feeling and somewhere, lost in his thoughts, he could hear the ghostly laughter of his sister Tomoe.

* * *

(A few hours later - early evening) 

Enishi's time of part brooding and part resting was broken when he heard the sound of footsteps approaching him. He closed his eyes again, deciding to ignore them and hoped at the same time that it wasn't the old man coming to annoy him for the umpteenth time. He wondered why the man continued on visiting him, even when Enishi didn't even bother taking notice anymore. He regretted ever saying anything to the man in the first place, but the bottle that carried the scent of white plums and the odd manner of the man's attitude were so familiar that Enishi couldn't help _but _to speak to him.

Mulling over _this _problem made Enishi completely forget about the approaching person again whom he sensed had stopped in front of him. He hoped that his acting would drive the stranger away, but whoever it was in front of him didn't fall for it.

"Hello," came the familiar soft voice of a woman.

His eyes snapped open, staring straight into the eyes of a sea green ocean. Jet black hair fell framing an oval face that had a complexion of a geisha who had been slightly tanned by the sun. The rest of her hair that had not framed the oval face was held up haphazardly together by a dagger-like pin. Enishi blinked and blinked again to make sure he wasn't seeing things. That voice he heard earlier belonged to this beautiful woman?

She gave him a small smile, cocking her head to one side. "I noticed you when I came home earlier. Are you new here?"

Now looking at the owner of the voice, he began to feel a bit...hm, he couldn't quite place the right word for it. All he knew now, staring into the sea-green eyes of his woman, was that she had somehow made him forget about his earlier troubles.

"Yeah, he heard him say while asking himself why he was answering her at the same time. His voice sounded oddly foreign to him from lack of use.

The woman's smile widened and she looked up at the looming clouds above them. Her quick movements allowed Enishi to quietly release a breath that he had unknowingly held back.

"It looks like it's going to rain soon," she turned back to him, recaptivating his attention.

Was he seeing things or did he see concern in those eyes?

"Do you have a place to stay?"

With the way he had been ignoring the populace the past week, Enishi was not surprised that the thought of finding some place to hide from the government never crossed his mind. Actually, if he looked at himself in the mirror right now, he probably wouldn't recognize himself. This made Enishi more surprised that the soft voice that had captured his attention was now actually talking to him.

"No..." he slowly replied, half-wishing to himself that he shouldn't be talking to his woman. That what he should be thinking now was to find some way to regain his dead sister's image in his mind.

Yet he saw the woman frown and couldn't help but think to himself that she still looked beautiful when she did that. And again, a small voice inside of him was berating himself for thinking such trivial things.

"You're going to be soaking wet if you don't find shelter."

She had grabbed one of his hands, the one that held his broken katana -- a physical image of what he had been feeling like for the past week here. Yet seeing her hold his hand without fear or hesitation, the blade looked as if it had captured a glimpse of hope through the reflection of her face.

"You can stay at my home if you'd like," she offered.

Something inside of him was compelled to accept her offer, yet a small part of him resisted. It quietly died, though, when he looked back up into her eyes. Now that he continued to look at her, he thought that the color of her eyes suited her.

"You don't have to worry about room," she added. "I have an extra room at my house. As long as you don't mind having my children around."

He stood up without a word, holding onto his sister's diary and his broken weapon -- the only possessions he actually had besides the clothes on his back. She let go of his hand then, leading him back through the maze of dirt roads of Rakuninmura to her home.

And all the while, Enishi wondered to himself why did he allow himself to follow this woman.

"What's your name?" he heard her ask after a few minutes of silence. Thunder rolled into the sky, and they had quickened their pace.

"Enishi..." the strength in his voice died a little bit and he cleared his throat. "Yukishiro Enishi."

_Hm, that sounds a little bit better._

The sound of his voice was beginning to sound more familiar to him. "And you, Miss..."

"Yumiko," the woman replied. "Nagasaki Yumiko."

The name Nagasaki sounded familiar to him, but with his mind beginning to fall back on dark thoughts, he decided to disregard it. After a few more moments of awkward -- to him only, it seemed; from his point of view Yumiko acted as if this was what she always did -- Enishi asked another question.

"Nagasaki-san."

They had stopped in front of somewhat decent looking home and she glanced back at him. "Hm?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what, Yukishiro-san?"

"Helping me," he frowned. Her reaction wasn't what he had expected. "...Giving me shelter. We don't...know each other. And for all you know, I could be someone who can take advantage of you and rob you."

She completely turned around to face him, giving him a smile and an answer that he didn't expect. "Are you one, Yukishiro-san?"

He hesitated for a second. He could have said "yes", but he knew that he wasn't that kind of person. Fugitive was a definitive. Murderer, maybe, considering how he decided to survive in Shanghai. Kidnapper was another possibility due to Jinchuu. Yet that was in the past, and it was all because he had wanted Battousai to receive just as much emotional torture as he did for all those years.

Enishi's eyes caught the color of his sister's diary and he was reminded of how much of a shell he was now.

"No..." _I can't ever be if oneesan disappears..._

Yumiko's eyes fell into a darker hue, looking at him as if she knew the torture he was going through.

"Then I have nothing to worry about, " her soft voice once again took him away from his thoughts. "When I saw you sitting against the wall this afternoon with those lost eyes, you reminded me of someone. Everyone here in Rakuninmura has their own share of problems and their own dark secrets of the past, but we try to help one another regardless of what happened."

She held out a hand to him as the first droplets of rain began to fall from the sky. Enishi stared at it deep in thought, reflecting back on the meaning of her words. He looked back up again to meet her eyes, eyes that were the color of a sea green ocean which held inside a sincerity that Enishi hadn't seen since the day his sister heard the news of her fiancé's death. A twinge of something that he couldn't recognize shivered deep within his heart, and Enishi began to understand why Yumiko's voice had such a calming effect on him.

"That's why I'm helping you," she told him as the rain began a strong downpour over the city. "Regardless of what may have driven you here."

Enishi stared at her outstretched hand again, wondering what to do. Then slowly, he willed his own hand to move until it rested lightly on her much smaller one, accepting her off, and her words.

Yukishiro Enishi would have never guessed that her offer would be one that would completely change his life forever. Only one woman, the gentle spirit of Yukishiro Tomoe, had seen it coming as she watched him from a distance.

And she smiled.

* * *

**GLOSSARY OF UNKNOWN WORDS**

(name)-san: ending that's commonly used among strangers, workers, etc, depending on the person that you are talking to

oneesan: older sister


	3. Chp 2, A Small Change of Pace

**-Rurouni Kenshin: True Love-**

_Chapter Two - A Small Change of Pace_

"_Tousan_!" Enishi paused in his work as he caught a glimpse of a young girl running towards him. She was the spitting image of her mother, her dark hair tied up in pigtails. Enishi didn't particularly like children, but he had grown attached to Yumiko's twins within the short period of time he began to stay at her home. It had only been a month so far, but Enishi felt as if he had been with them for a long time.

And he liked the calm he experienced when he was with them.

Enishi caught the girl, smiling as she giggled in his arms. Yumiko had fraternal twins, one boy and one girl, yet both looked very like siblings and the mirror image of their mother. Yumiko's daughter, Rin, was the more energetic and talkative of the two although she still acquired the soft, quiet voice her mother possessed. Her son, Ran, reminded Enishi a little bit of himself after Tomoe left him in search of Himura Battousai. He understood all too well the independence the young boy portrayed at times and the quiet demeanor he held. The twins contradicted each other; maybe that was why Enishi was so attached to them.

Although, it was a little bit strange being called "'tousan". They had originally called him "Enishi-_oniisan_" until a week ago, they began to call him "'tousan" which surprised both adults in the house since he technically was not their father. Enishi never questioned Yumiko about the children's biological father because he assumed that it was none of his business to ask nor did he think he was going to stay long.

Yet that was a month ago. Now he wasn't sure if he wanted to leave or if he had to.

"What is it, Rin-chan?" he asked the girl in his arms who began to proceed to look very thoughtful as if trying to remember what she wanted to say.

"Um…" Rin bit her lower lip for a moment. Her wide eyes brightened soon afterwards. "'_Kaasan_ wants to know if you want lunch! She's making a reeeaaaallly big ---" she spread her arms as wide as she could to emphasize her comment, "---lunch today from that, um…"

He was getting an idea of what she was talking about and decided to help. "Fish?"

"Un!" the girl nodded eagerly, her pigtails bouncing along as she did so. "That really big fish you caught yesterday! 'Kaasan's making something reaaaallllly big out of it."

Enishi laughed at her exaggerations. "Mmmm, that sounds good. Where's your brother?"

"Mmmm….oniisan's helping 'kaasan because she needs help."

He arched an eyebrow. "Then why are you not helping your mom, too?"

"**Because** she accidentally mentioned that she'll go call ''tousan'," Yumiko appeared in the doorway with a wooden spoon in one hand and wearing an apron over her kimono. "And then Rin-chan wanted to get him and left, leaving her and her brother out all alone."

She finished with a small pout, which automatically made Rin feel guilty and the girl vigorously shook her head in Enishi's arms.

"I'm sorry, okaasan…"

Enishi tried as hard as he could to keep a straight face as he continued to act as the odd person out. He knew that Yumiko was only teasing her daughter, but he only wanted to laugh at the honesty Rin was openly expressing.

"Well, if you give your mommy a big hug and kiss, I think I'll feel all better," Yumiko told her with a smile.

Enishi quickly set Rin down and continued to watch the scene unfold before him. The girl ran as fast as she could towards her mother who had squatted down to her height and accepted the conditions of apology. It was only when Yumiko shooed her daughter off to clean up that Enishi finally released the laughter that had been building up inside the entire time.

When his laughter died down and he began to approach Yumiko, he noticed the soft smile on her face.

"I think that's the first time I've heard you laugh," she said as he came within hearing distance.

"Hm?" Her comment confused him a little.

A soft chuckle filtered through Yumiko's throat as she shook her head.

"I don't think that a month ago, you would have been able to even smile," she reiterated her comment a bit differently than the last. "You had so many things to filter through your mind back then that I thought that there would never be a chance for you to smile."

"Oh…" Enishi scratched the back of his head. He had been doing this a lot lately. Back then, before he initiated Jinchuu and before he fell blind to his mistakes, he wouldn't have even though of expressing embarrassment.

"I guess…" he trailed off, pulling the fragments together on what to say. "I guess it's your children. They're very…carefree."

"Aren't children always like that though?" Yumiko asked. "Especially in this day and age."

"Hmm…I wouldn't know," Enishi replied. "I never really had one."

Yumiko looked at him strangely for a split second before she smiled once again. He had told her some small parts of the reasons why he was here during the month of his stay, although not all of it. Yet she didn't seem to mind whatever he had told her and he appreciated it. In return, he didn't inquire much about her past although bits and pieces of his scattered memory began to wonder if he **had** met her before in the past.

"Maybe you're making up your childhood with the children," she murmured, though Enishi didn't catch all of it.

"Hm?"

He watched her shake her head and his eyes became mesmerized by the way her hair moved. It was these little things about Yumiko that made his heart pound, yet Enishi mustered the will to suppress the strange feeling he had inside. It was during these small moments that he wondered to himself if this odd feeling was what his sister felt when she stayed with Battousai for that short time.

And it was during these small moments that Enishi's heart sealed itself away again, afraid of what would happen if this calming presence before him would calm him no longer.

"Well, lunch is ready," Yumiko's voice drew him out of his thoughts as if her voice itself had the power to bring all of the darkness away from his heart. "Are you hungry yet?"

A small growl from the pit of his stomach answered her question and Enishi chuckled. "Yes, very."

* * *

_(Five months later…)_

He watched her sit on the edge of the porch, swinging her legs back and forth like a child and blow a breath of exhaustion away from her hair. Enishi quietly sat down next to her, watching the children play a game of tag together.

"Thank you for taking care of the children while I was away," she said to him. "I don't know if I would be able to watch them while working there at the Akabeko."

Enishi smiled, taking a quick glance at her profile. "It's all right. Rin and Ran are very good helpers when it comes to keeping the money in one place." While she was away, Enishi had taken the children to a local store to do some minor shopping in order to keep them preoccupied. "You look exhausted, though."

"Hm, we were short-handed," she replied, rubbing her temples in a circular motion to ease the oncoming headache she was beginning to feel. "Tsubame-chan was sick and we had more customers than the usual. You would think that there would be other places to eat other than _sukiyaki_." She turned to look at him, catching him off-guard. "What did Ruri say about your ears?"

About two months after he began staying with Yumiko, Enishi had finally begun to feel the effects of having the nerves near his eardrums pop from Battousai's strange attack. It was at first a small, dull ache that he easily ignored, but the pain had suddenly increased one day to the point where he could no longer stand straight without wondering if things were right-side up or down. Yumiko literally ordered him to see Ruri, the Rakuninmura's local low profile doctor and one of Yumiko's closest friends. Despite working in such a rundown area, Ruri proved to be quite the expert in the filed of medicine. She was also the kind of doctor who never pried for money or facts and for that many of the poor and defectors often went to her for aid rather than the local doctor in their own towns.

Enishi's hand automatically went to his right ear, the one that had been causing him the most problems with his sense of balance.

"Thanks to the medicine, Ruri said that they will be fine in about a week," he reassured her. "I just have to be careful about my workload."

Yumiko leaned back, closing her eyes and smiled in relief. "That's good."

Enishi returned the smile before he began to think back to his conversation with the feisty doctor.

* * *

"Hmm…you seem a little bit better," Ruri, a young woman around Enishi's age with brown hair and eyes, said as she blew out the candle and proceeded to open the windows to let the light in again. "Your eyes don't have that distorted look like the last time. I'm guessing that in about a week they'll be fully healed as long as you don't make a racket with your ears." 

Enishi blinked away the light, temporarily blinded as his eyes began to readjust. Because she didn't have the proper instruments, the doctor had to resort to some rather unconventional techniques on certain medical problems. His was no exception.

"I'll tell Gen that you can come back to work next week," he heard her say as she rummaged through her packets of herbs. "That way he can stop pestering me for the day you can return to help him out."

Enishi stifled a chuckle, though he was quite expecting her remark. Gen was Ruri's older half brother by two years, just about a year older than Enishi himself. He was known for being the local handyman, always on call to help on simple things such as getting an old woman's cat off the roof to the more complicated and time-consuming jobs such as repairing the roof on someone's home. Feeling guilty for staying at Yumiko's home freely, Enishi decided to put some of his skills as a swordsman to use since he really couldn't do anything else without notifying the government of his whereabouts. It wasn't a tedious job or one that Enishi actually wanted, but it was interesting nonetheless. The two had been wary of one another at first, mainly due to the fact that Gen was worried about Yumiko and her children's well beings, but they became good friends over time.

"I'm sorry for giving you trouble, Ruri-sa---" he stopped short from completing the formal ending, knowing that she had wanted to rid of the formalities since day one. "Ruri."

"This is my job," she told him, taking out whatever she was looking for and dabbed a pen into the inkwell. He guessed she was writing out instructions to take the medicine for him. "There's no need to apologize."

She finished writing and handed him the paper while the ink was still wet. "Just follow what it says on here and you'll be fine."

Enishi glanced down at the paper, remarking, "Ruri, chicken scratch is even better than this."

"Then find a new doctor to go to," she retorted easily enough and handed him a small packet wrapped with herbs. "That way you can be in a place where they **really** treat you well."

He inwardly frowned at the remark but didn't show it on his face. The white-haired man hadn't mentioned to anyone except Yumiko about the most legitimate reason why he was here, but he had a feeling that the doctor dealt with most people who were fugitives like himself and so he dealt with her remark as he did with any other that he received during the past few months - like it was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Ha, ha, very funny."

Ruri grinned for a moment at his reply before it faded and was replaced by a face that held all teasing and joking aside.

"Enishi, I have a question to ask you."

"Hm?" He glanced up from vainly trying to decipher the words she had scribbled down for him.

Ruri leaned back a little in her chair, folding her arms across her chest. "How long are you going to stay with Yumi-_chan_?"

Enishi stared at her with faint surprise though he really wasn't surprised at all by her question. He, too, asked himself when he was going to leave countless of times before, but whenever the thought arrived he unconsciously tucked it away in the back of his head as if somewhere inside him he didn't want to go.

Enishi looked away from Ruri then as he felt the familiar feeling of uncertainty rise in him.

"To be honest…" he trailed off, trying to find the right words. "I don't know."

Silence fell among them and the only sound that reached Enishi's hearing were the noises of everyday life in Rakuninmura. Ruri broke it after a few minutes passed with a sigh.

"I don't mean to sound rude in any way," she explained. "You get along really well with the children and…I haven't seen Yumi-chan laugh and smile so much in a long time."

That got his attention. "Laugh and smile?"

"A true laugh and smile," she told him. "I know that Yumi-chan usually does act very cheerful but…sometimes she does that so that others don't have to worry about her. Especially Rin and Ran."

Enishi contemplated on her words and about the prospect of ever leaving their side.

"Plus, you don't act so much like a stick in the mud like the first time we met."

He frowned at her comment. "Since when was I a stick in the mud?"

Ruri laughed at his reaction. "Oh, you wouldn't even **imagine**…"

"Ruri…"

"Enishi," she leaned forward, folding her hands together in her lap. "I'm asking you this as a friend - both Yumi-chan's and yours." She grinned at him to break the tension that had been building up. "And because that little voice in me won't shut up until it's satisfied. I know that Yumi-chan won't bring up the subject because that's just the way she is, so I'm asking you. Do you think you can bring yourself to leave or stay with them forever?"

* * *

"Enishi?" 

He hadn't realized that he had strayed so long in his thoughts, though Enishi easily concealed his bewilderment from her as he turned his attention from the children back to her.

"Hm?"

"Are you all right?" Yumiko asked. "You seem a bit distracted."

Enishi smiled back at her and shook his head, brushing back the white locks of hair away from his eyes. He made a mental note to himself that he needed to cut his hair. He hadn't bothered to since the day he arrived and it was now beginning to annoy him when he worked since it now fell just above his shoulders.

"Just…" he trailed off, trying to piece the right words together. "Thinking."

Yumiko left it at that as she leaned back once again and watched Rin and Ran together. It was one of the many traits that he liked about Yumiko. She never pressed on an issue unless it was something important. However, Ruri's words continued to linger in his mind and he agreed on one point she mentioned: the subject had to be brought up by him.

"Yumiko…"

He knew she had turned her head yet if he decided to look into her eyes, the resolve in him would ebb. So he opted to look down at his folded hands.

"It's been six months since I've come here," he began. "I appreciate for what you've done for me…and Rin and Ran as well." He let out a light laugh as a stray thought came to mind. "I don't think I've ever been this…calm since the day my family fell apart. "He looked up again although only to the children playing tag. "I'm just wondering though…" He finally managed the will to turn and look at her after a few moments. "How long do you want me to stay?"

Seeing the blank expression on her face, he turned away again, brushing back his hair. "I'm sorry if it's a bothering question. It's just…I mean, I can leave if you want me to."

He didn't have the slightest idea where to go if he had to leave, but if it made her life easier then he could. Enishi froze at the thought. Since when did he concern himself over someone's feelings? His old self would have laughed at the idea and ignored the concept all together, but the man he was no had allowed someone to imbed themselves deep into the grooves of his shredded heart, mending it, and giving a feeling that was alien to him.

He had heard her sigh and he felt her soft touch around his hand, drawing his attention back to her. She was looking at their intertwined hands and not at him, the stray locks of her ebony hair falling out of its hold in the pin.

"I don't mind you staying here," she replied to him in a voice that was barely above a whisper. "I don't mind at all."

It was all Enishi needed to hear and his beating heart began to slow to its normal pace. He knew she wanted to say more and waited as they shared a few moments of mutual silence.

"You're one of the very few people whom I've helped who haven't done anything to me or the children that might make us feel uncomfortable," she continued on and looked towards her children. "And I haven't seen Rin and Ran act this well-behaved. They might not seem like it, especially Rin since she's very energetic, but they don't warm up to strangers very quickly. They really like you and seeing them this happy lets me be at peace."

He watched her smile sadly, eyes giving off a distant gaze. "As you can see, they don't have a father."

She looked away from the children and whispered, "I'd rather not have them know who he is."

Enishi wanted to question more as the curiosity that began the first few days he began to stay reignited, but he knew it was better to wait until she felt more comfortable about speaking her own past just as she did with him.

Yet he couldn't help but remember her say one time to him that the reason she was in this rundown place was that she had been disowned by her father.

"Was that why your father threw you out?" he asked.

A faint smile appeared on her lips. She still hadn't let go of his hand, but he didn't really mind. The feeling was all too new to him yet it was still familiar and comforting at the same time.

"Hmm…perhaps," she hummed. "When he found out that I was pregnant with Rin and Ran, he pushed me out of the house and locked the door. My father is a very selfish man. He wanted to give me away to a wealthier family, but if anyone found out that I was carrying someone else's child then there was no use for me."

She rested her head on his shoulder then with her face turned into it in order to hide her emotions from the children. Enishi immediately stiffened at the action, having not realized how close they had been sitting together, only to relax and begin to understand the odd and unfamiliar emotions that stirred within him. And a faint understanding of what Battousai might have felt when he was with that woman…or his sister.

Funny how the man that Enishi swore for revenge before was now becoming someone that he was beginning to look at for some sort of comparison. The ex-hitokiri now brought no more malice whenever the thought would come by. It was now a rather dull feeling, no more than something that Enishi would lightly reflect on and mentally correct. Staying with Yumiko and her children was giving him an idea of what it really meant to protect someone dear to the heart. He was new to the process, but he didn't want to repeat the same mistakes he made as a child when Tomoe left in search for her revenge.

The tears that trickled down his arm brought him back to the present. "Yumiko…"

"If I had met you earlier," she whispered, "would things still be like this? Sitting here together, watching the children play, finally feeling a sense of normality and not tricked into thinking that the only way out of a traditional and burdening household was to become someone's plaything."

He wanted to wrap his free arm around her petite frame and let her cry silently into his chest. There was no need for words between them; he understood the underlying meaning beneath her spoken words and yet somewhere deep inside him he wished he had the courage to speak them out.

Their first, real intimate moment was interrupted by two pairs of footsteps scurrying towards them. Yumiko quickly sat up, wiping away what little tears she shed with the back of her hand. If it wasn't for the wet streaks on her cheeks and the hair hiding her eyes, Enishi wouldn't have believed that she shared a portion of her hardship to him.

"Okaasan, someone's here to see you," Rin announced, pointing behind her. She didn't seem to notice her mother's slightly damp cheeks, yet Enishi noticed the glimpse of worry in Ran's eyes as he quickly glanced between him and his mother. It was so slight that it wouldn't have been noticed by someone who wasn't as observant. Enishi inwardly smiled to himself; the boy was far smarter than he looked.

The two adults looked at Rin's direction to a young girl of around fourteen standing against the front gate (at least what resembled the gate), fidgeting with the apron around her kimono. Yumiko gave Enishi a soft smile before she stood and approached the girl at the gate, leaving him to the assault of questions.

"Ne, 'tousan," Rin asked as she and her brother crawled onto the porch to sit next to him. "Why was 'kaasan crying?"

Scratch that, Enishi thought, the **both** of them were more observant and smarter than they looked.

Enishi thought for a moment for the right words to explain. "Okaasan was just a little sad, that's all."

"Sad?" Rin repeated. "Why?"

"Are you leaving?" Ran added in a quiet voice.

Enishi looked at them - their mother's sea-green eyes staring back at him. Rin's was slowly welling into tears and Ran's showed a mixture of sadness and fear. He looked forward to Yumiko who was walking back, their guest still waiting at the gate. Then he smiled, ruffling their hair affectionately.

"No," he told them and to himself. "Not for a long time."

* * *

**GLOSSARY OF UNKNOWN WORDS:**

'tousan - short for "otousan" which means father; a more common form to say

oniisan - older brother or a guy who's still young yet older than you

'kaasan - short for "okaasan" which means mother; a more common form to say

sukiyaki - beef hot pot; just like the explanation suggests

(name)-chan - informal ending to use in names; typically used with children and close friends…still really depends on the person, though


	4. Chp 3, Rescue

**-Rurouni Kenshin: True Love-**

_Chapter Three - Rescue_

His emerald eyes watched the flame from the lantern closely as if it was his only lifeline to patience left before he glanced down at the two children sleeping on his lap. A small smile fell on his lips as he brushed a stray strand of hair away from each of their faces. When he looked back up at the flame again, the smile disappeared - replaced with a tiny frown of worry.

She was late.

It wasn't an unusual occurrence for Yumiko to come home at a late hour from her temporary job at the Akabeko, but she typically would tell Enishi beforehand when she left and usually came back only a few hours after dusk. This time, however, didn't feel right.

Enishi looked down at Rin and Ran again, both whom had desperately tried to stay awake with him as they waited for their mother to return only to have sleep overcome their small bodies, and looked back at the flame.

Blowing out a sigh of frustration and resolve, the white-haired fugitive quietly shifted the children to a more comfortable position and carried them out of the home, taking them to Ruri.

* * *

(Tokyo - at the Akabeko) 

The woman in front of her took a deep bow as she was getting ready to leave.

"Thank you so much, Yumiko-san!" she said to her before straightening back to her full height. "I'm not sure what I could have done without you."

Yumiko gave the woman a tired smile. "Happy to help out anytime, Tae-san."

"Are you **sure** you don't want the extra pay?"

She shook her head, adjusting the strap on her pouch and tucking it inside her kimono. "No, it's all right. I'm just happy that I was able to help out."

The owner smiled sadly, understanding the meaning beneath her words. "All right…are you sure you don't want Yahiko-_kun_ to take you home?"

The younger woman couldn't help but chuckle at Tae's insistence of repayment as she shook her head. She was sure that the boy would do a good job in escorting her back home, but her friend was too concerned for her well-being. They only knew each other for about a year and a half, but Yumiko already regarded the sukiyaki owner as an older sister to her though Sekihara Tae was merely only a few years older.

"I'll be fine," she reassured Tae. "You know that I can take care of myself, Tae-san. Plus, Yahiko-kun lives on the opposite side where I'm from and I don't want his guardians to worry."

"But I've heard that there have been some murders lately and the police still haven't found the murderer…"

"Then, if someone tries to sneak up on me, I'll pop them on the head really hard," she replied with a smile, exaggerating her comment by connecting her fist with the palm of her other hand. Her smile soon faded soon afterwards, replaced with one of understanding. Besides Ruri and her brother Gen, Tae was also the only other person who knew what truly happened to her in the past. A stinging feeling fell to the pit of her stomach when the thought came across her - she needed to tell Enishi as well but couldn't find the right timing or words to.

"I'll be fine, Tae-san, so don't worry."

The owner nodded a bit reluctantly. "All right. Please take care."

Yumiko gave her another smile and bowed before she stepped outside. As soon as she slid the door shut, she finally let her weariness show and sighed.

_Why do I do this to myself?_ she wondered as she began to take the familiar path home, unaware that two pairs of eyes were watching her.

* * *

(Half and hour later…) 

Enishi purposefully slowed his steps as he came closer to the restaurant where Yumiko worked temporarily. It had been quickly rebuilt after its sudden attack six months before, but the white-haired man could still remember the day he initiated Jinchuu with Kujiranami Hyougo's cannon fire. It had been a devastating warning sign to Battousai of the things to come, but now it stood as a warning sign for him to get tipped off to the authorities.

Of course, the owner and many of her employees did not know who he was but if he remembered his extensive research correctly, there was the boy who lived with Battousai who worked here. If he saw Enishi, then there definitely would be some trouble in the future. And Enishi didn't want that, not now.

He stopped in front of the Akabeko's entrance, noting that the door was closed but there was still light inside. Some relief came to him, hoping that Yumiko was inside since he didn't see her on his way here.

Mustering up the resolve to knock, Enishi kept an air of informality around him even though when deep inside - the part of him he stubbornly ignored - he was a bit hesitant if not frightened to find the reasons to explain to Yumiko about his complete past.

A few seconds passed before the door slid open, revealing a woman not much older than himself with velvet brown eyes that barely peeked out underneath her lashes and her hair of the same color tied in a bun.

"Ah, I'm very sorry, but we're closed now," she politely said to him. "We will be open tomo-"

Enishi waved his hand, shaking his head. "Oh no, I'm not a customer. I…was wondering if Yumiko was still here." The woman's face lightened up in surprise.

"Yumiko-san? She already left a little while ago…"

He inwardly frowned at her words as his relief diminished and returned back to worry. Something in the back of his mind told him that something was definitely wrong. Giving the woman a slight smile, he bowed goodbye before running off to find the woman who had given him a second chance at life, unaware of the very person he hesitated to meet again had already seen him.

* * *

Myojin Yahiko, son of a samurai, student of the Kamiya Kasshin, and admirer of Himura Kenshin, made a dash for the door, only to find that the white-haired man he'd seen to have seemingly disappeared. 

"Yahiko-kun, what's wrong?" the woman next to him asked, startled at his actions.

The boy looked frantically around the empty street, desperately trying to prove his eyes wrong that who he had seen wasn't real. With one final glance, he turned back to the owner.

"Oi, Tae-san, who was that guy?" he demanded, wide-eyed.

"He didn't say," Tae replied. "I thought he was one of Yumiko-san's friends since he asked for her."

"Yumiko-san?" Yahiko repeated, his fear ebbing down slightly. "Oh…"

"Was that why you looked like you were in a hurry?"

The boy shook his head, both to her and himself. He must have been mistaken; there was no way that the beautiful and kind woman who often helped out at the Akabeko could be acquainted with such a person. Yumiko was very much a second sister to him, and it didn't seem possible for her to be acquainted with someone as deranged and broken as Yukishiro Enishi.

"Just mistook him for someone…" he murmured, mentally repeating to himself that he probably was being paranoid.

Yet the fact that the man who had been so bent on destroying Kenshin still hadn't been caught nor even attempted to find nagged at the back of the boy's mind.

* * *

She decided to take a much different but faster way home than usual. The thought of walking alone in the wide, empty streets of Tokyo felt a bit unsettling to her. It reminded Yumiko too much of her own insecurities, despite her words to Tae, and she felt much safer within the confines of crowded buildings and homes where there would be enough ears to hear any scuffle at this time of night. 

Or so she thought.

Yumiko paused in mid-walk and turned around, eyes wary of the darkened buildings around her. She hadn't been in a physical fight for years, but the sixth sense inside her still remained sharp. Her ears weren't lying to her; she had heard footsteps following her in an off-beat pattern a few minutes ago.

Eyes narrowed at the darkness behind her. Almost everyone at this hour was asleep or back at their home in some other part of the city and there was little light to actually see anything. Yet she could feel the person or persons nearby. Her heart pounded in her ears. It wasn't surprising to her that she was being followed, having been in these situations before, but she was still a bit frightened at the prospect of being in _that_ situation again - only with someone that she didn't know.

Taking one last look behind her, Yumiko turned back around and did the most logical thing she could do: run.

* * *

A small yelp of pain caught his sensitive hearing and Enishi's head snapped in the direction where he heard it from. He had been retracing back his steps, hoping that he would run into her on his way back. 

He paused again and began to walk towards the direction of the faint sound when he heard a much louder shout. Without thinking, his body automatically set itself on a sprint, his eyes frantically searching around for any sign of her in the maze of alleyways when they locked onto a faint, familiar figure of a woman and the scent of white plums.

He felt as if his heart had literally stopped at the sight of her. It couldn't be possible; he hadn't seen her in what felt like an eternity.

"…_'Neesan_?"

Her ghostly figure dressed in the same kimono he had always seen her in looked up, telling him something that he couldn't quite hear. Enishi rushed towards the figure with as much speed his legs would give him as she faded away, once again lost from his grasp. He skidded to a stop when he reached the wall where she once was, his mind frantically scrambling for reasons unknown to him when a scream shoved him back to reality.

"NOOOOOO!"

* * *

Her run didn't prove to be fast enough, especially when her kimono constricted her movements to move faster. Her assailant had tried to slow her progress when he caught up to her by grabbing her arm. Yumiko instinctively twisted her arm back rather than tug it back, which what her assailant wasn't expecting. He yelped at the pain of his arm twisting in the wrong way, and Yumiko used this chance of an opening to use her free arm. Her fist connected her assailant square in the chin and what reach she could make with her right leg, she aimed at his shin. The masked man reeled back in pain and let her go. 

Now free, Yumiko took a second to hastily unbutton the piece that held her kimono tightly together at her legs and made another run. Her heart was wildly pounding in her ears now; she needed to get to the open street and fast. Fleeting memories of her past came back to her, the familiar panic rising in her body again as she began to think back to those times. She knew how to take care of herself - her mother had made sure that every child in the family did - but those years of training were far overrun by the memories of the mistake she had made four years ago. By thinking that the man then had loved her, needed her, only to be forced into something that she didn't want and then thrown away like the useless daughter she was.

Yumiko gave a shout of surprise and pain as she suddenly fell forward, hitting the ground hard. She scrambled to stand up only to wince at the pain she felt on her right knee. Her eyes, so adjusted to the darkness, saw not far from her a decent sized wooden boomerang lying nearby.

"Hmph, didn't think you'd be that hard for my partner to catch," she heard a deep voice say. With the help of the moonlight, she saw another figure not far from her. Like the previous assailant, he too was all in black and masked, but she could tell that this man had a much larger build to him.

Yumiko turned on her back, trying to scoot away from this new assailant with her good left leg and keeping an eye on the man. The taller, more largely built man just chuckled at her efforts, coming closer.

"You won't be getting up after that hit, ojouchan," he said to her through the mask that muffled his voice. "My weapon aimed for your knee, and it has probably been dislocated."

Her eyes frantically looked around for an escape route. Dislocated right knee or no, she had to get up.

Yet the unknown man seemed to sense her thoughts as he quickly overpowered her and took advantage of his strength over hers, restraining her movements. Yumiko struggled beneath the man, trying to knee him in the groin with her good leg and scream for help, but he immediately stopped her efforts by putting his full weight on top of her and covering her mouth with one hand. One of her hands in the struggle managed to full free, but she was only capable of tearing off the mask.

"You're a feisty one, aren't you?" the man whispered in her ear. "But that might be your downfall, ojouchan. I'll finish this quickly for you."

Yumiko's eyes widened in horror, feeling the man's free hand wander over her body, its intention clear. She did not want the nightmare to happen again and struggled with all her might against the much stronger man. Violently shaking her head from side to side to wrench the hand over her mouth free, Yumiko finally managed to scream one plea for help.

"NOOOOO!"

As soon as she managed to sneak out the word and painfully trying to ignore the sound of her kimono about to be ripped off, the weight on top of her suddenly lifted. She opened her eyes, trying to decipher her rescuer as the man and the newcomer struggled for control. She numbly recognized the even taller man with white hair who held her assailant in a chokehold. Her attacker struggled for air and control, but Enishi's strength proved to be too strong for him as they continued to move back in the alley and out of the moonlight's presence. Not soon afterwards, Yumiko could hear the sickening crack of a neck being broken.

"_Aniki_!"

Enishi acted quickly, catching up to the second man behind him before anything could be done. His fist connected with the man's gut, and he could hear a few ribs of the other man crack at the impact and he furthered the damage by giving a roundhouse kick in the same area. The man went flying against the wall, another crack could be heard when his head hit the concrete.

Enishi breathed quickly, the adrenaline rush he felt was unlike any other he had before.

Slowly, taking one last look to where the other man lay, Enishi regained control of himself. Killing wasn't new to him, but killing in order to protect someone was something entirely different. He turned around and rushed to Yumiko who was still sitting dumbfounded where he left her.

He met her stunned eyes, gently grabbing hold of her shoulders. "Yumiko…are you all right?"

He at first thought he had done something to make her look so frightened and was taken by surprise when she embraced him tightly. He didn't know what to think until he realized that she was shaking.

"…Yumiko?"

Her response was to only hold him tighter as if he was her only lifeline left.

_**"If I had met you earlier, would things still be like this? Sitting here together, watching the children play, finally feeling a sense of normality and not tricked into thinking that the only way out of a traditional household was to become someone's play toy."**_

_**"As you can see, they don't have a father."**_

_**"…I'd rather not have them know who he is."**_

The pieces of the puzzle were falling into place as he slowly, hesitantly, wrapped his arms around her small frame. Her tears were dripping down his shirt, but he didn't care as he continued to console her in the best way that he could, threading his fingers into her ruffled but silk hair. He didn't say anything; there was no need to. All she needed right now was for him to **be** there and that was all.

Now he had an idea of the reasons why she was thrown out, why she never wanted to mention Rin and Ran's father, why she was so frightened now.

She had been used, lured and then tossed out like trash. The thought sparked a flame of anger inside him, even it had been in her past - in a place where he hadn't existed yet.

Enishi looked around them, noting the handiwork he had done and set his mind back to the present task at hand. He didn't mind waiting for her to calm down, but her scream and the mess he created probably alerted some of the inhabitants of the homes. That fact didn't bode too well with him. Enishi never liked public attention, and if he was discovered now, he didn't know if he would ever come back. He looked back down at Yumiko who looked to have calmed a bit, her breathing steady against the crook of his neck.

"Let's go," he murmured in her ear. "Before the police come."

She nodded against him and he stood up, helping her up as well. He saw her wince, though, and noted how she gingerly held most of her weight on her left leg. He knew that she was trying her best to hide the pain.

"What's wrong?"

She shook her head, slowly trying to straighten out her right leg but only winced again when she couldn't. "Nothing."

He frowned at her, suspicion rising. He held her balance, noting again that she was carefully trying to not use him for support. Enishi stepped closer and took her hand firmly in his, looking at her in the eye as the anger in him rose again. She was injured on her right leg somewhere, and the reasoning in him was angry at himself for not finding her sooner.

If it hadn't been for his sister…

Enishi froze at the memory. His sister Tomoe had definitely appeared to him earlier. Was she **guiding** him to Yumiko?

He brushed the thought aside to save it for a later time. "What did that bastard to do you?"

Yumiko blinked at the tone in his voice. She had never seen him so calmly angered, but then again - a reluctant voice told her - she still didn't see all sides of him yet. The look in his eyes said that this wasn't the time to be stubborn. That this was the time to trust him.

She tore her gaze away from his intense one, looking down at her injury. Now that she had calmed down, she couldn't believe that she let herself break down like that. Yet with Enishi, it felt…right. Because she knew that somewhere deep inside her, she **could **trust him.

"I…um, my knee," she whispered. "He hit me with a boomerang on my knee and…I fell."

He looked at her and then at where she was looking at. He knew that she probably wanted to walk beside him, but they would have to go at an extremely slow pace, which wasn't what he could give - not now.

She yelped in surprise when he lifted her off her feet and then cradled her in his arms. "Enishi!"

"It'll be faster this way," he pointed out to her, glad that the night hid his face. He felt his cheeks burning, but he blamed it from his little exercise.

Yumiko complied without a word as they left the scene. He carefully made his way out of the maze through her direction and when they reached the familiar streets back to Rakuninmura, they fell in a mutual silence, each lost in their own thoughts. He reconsidered the option of telling her how dangerous of a fugitive he was, how he had seen Tomoe; she remembered back to four years ago where she had been a much different woman then, reconsidering the choice to speak of her past to him.

Yet neither spoke nor did they attempt to ask the other. They were just content with the silence for now and in each other's company.

It wasn't until Yumiko began to notice that Enishi was not walking back to her home when she spoke. "Enishi, where -"

"I left Rin and Ran with Ruri," he explained to her, trying not to smile. "So, I guess it's a good thing that you got injured."

The humor in his voice made Yumiko chuckle and she turned her head into the crook of his neck once again. "Very funny, Enishi."

She contemplated on telling him again as their silence resumed. A different kind of fear gripped her, mainly because she didn't know how he would react. Would he be ashamed of her? Give her his sympathy? Nagasaki Yumiko didn't want any of it - she only wanted him to know…because she trusted him.

They were nearing her friend's clinic, and she made a note to herself to tell him when they were alone. But first…

"Enishi?"

Her warm breath tickled against his exposed skin, and Enishi forced the odd, stray thoughts from his mind. She wanted to say something to him and that was all that mattered right now. Yukishiro Enishi wanted to keep the peace she gave to his tortured soul, and he oddly didn't feel as afraid as he did earlier in telling his story. But first…

"Hm?"

The rumbling of his deep voice reverberated in her ear and she smiled and closed her eyes.

"Thank you."

But first, they had to know that their invisible bond of trust was enough for now.

"You're welcome."

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Agh, sorry for my delay! Since this chapter is entirely new from the original, it took me a while to write out...darn writer's block. Hopefully, the next chapter will come as scheduled (in another month!). 

**LIST OF UNKNOWN WORDS**

(name)-kun: This ending is mainly used to address young men or boys, more or less a formality for "-san"

'neesan: short of "oneesan" which means "older sister"

ojouchan: "little miss", used to address young women

aniki: a derivitave of "ani", which also means "older brother"


	5. Chp 4, Memory

**-Rurouni Kenshin: True Love-**

_Chapter Four - Memory_

The familiar scent of dawn flooded his mind. Sunlight filtered through the paper thin doors, announcing its arrival to the sleeping world with the birds as its first audience. All these his body recognized, and he would have continued to sleep had it not been for the faint scent of lavender filling his sense of smell and the warm, steady breath that tickled his skin. Enishi opened his eyes, wondering to himself what the blurred image in front of him was before he jolted awake. He sat straight back up in the chair he sat on and then glanced around the unfamiliar room to see if anyone was there, witnessing.

It came back to him why he was here and why Yumiko, still sleeping peacefully, was on the bed next to him. It also explained why he woke up to the odd things not normally registered to his head when he usually woke up. The lavender he smelled was her perfume; the warm breath was hers. The unfamiliar room he woke to was one of Ruri's spare rooms, and his close proximity to Yumiko was only because he stayed with her, watching. He guessed, tired as he was, he set his head on the bed without realizing that he would awaken this close to her. During his sleep, his upper body had subconsciously shifted closer to her, which was why - now fully awake - he quickly pulled back.

Enishi released a breath of air that he hadn't realized he had been holding as he watched her, mesmerized by her steady breathing, her peaceful face. Hesitantly, he reached out to her face before he pulled back and looked away as if she was something that shouldn't be touched by him. He didn't know what to do; he didn't know what to feel, say or think.

He was not the former Yukishiro Enishi that he understood.

_**There's no need to be afraid of change, Enishi.**_

The man snapped out of his stupor and looked around. There was no one else in the room but Yumiko and himself. Enishi stole another glance back at Yumiko before falling back to his thoughts. He thought back to the hours before…and to her story.

* * *

A few hours earlier... 

"So that's what happened," Gen murmured, setting his cup of tea down on the table.

Enishi didn't comment, merely nodded as he stared down at the drink he had in his hands. They were sitting in the main room of Ruri and Gen's home which also served as Ruri's clinic. Ruri shooed them off earlier so that she could begin her work. They could hear both women's voices - Yumiko's soft, apologetic one and Ruri's firm, berating one - through the walls but could make no words out of them. Enishi finished telling the doctor's brother a short summary of the events with the unknown attackers, leaving out choice sections out of necessity.

Now they were waiting for Ruri to come out with some news.

The silence among the two men continued on for a bit longer before Gen decided to break it with a sigh as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Then it's a good thing that you went to look for her when you did," he said. "It might have been a repeat of what happened four years ago if you hadn't come."

A flash of his sister's ghost along the wall, saying silent words to him, and Yumiko holding onto him tightly after he arrived, holding as if he was her only lifeline left, came across his mind. The memories provoked him back to his earlier assumption as his emerald eyes stared back at the older man curiously.

"A repeat?"

He saw Gen's eyes widen for a second, a slight hint of surprise overcoming his face. "You mean…Yumiko didn't tell you?"

Enishi was about to reply when the familiar steps of Ruri's feet attacked his hearing and he turned his head as she entered.

"She's fine now," the doctor announced to them. "But it'll be a while before she can walk normally again. I'd guess it would take about a month."

"She was hit that hard?" Gen asked.

Ruri folded her arms, closing her eyes. To Enishi, she didn't look too thrilled to explain to them how the human body worked as it was late.

"I don't know how projectiles work," she explained, "but when you get hit at the angle where the knee conjoins the two bones of your leg with a great force, it's bound to overstretch or tear the soft tissue in between there. Whoever attacked Yumi-chan must have known that weak point. However, she didn't dislocate her knee as she thought she did. If she did, she wouldn't be able to straighten her leg as much as she did."

"And you do realize that I didn't understand a word that you said?"

Ruri entered further into the room, glaring at her brother. "Of course, _baka_. I'm not the one who decided to send his sister to Europe to learn more about Western medicine."

She set a hand on Enishi's shoulder, looking at him with a genuine smile on her face. "You can go see her now."

* * *

He stopped in front of the door, hesitating to knock as he began to rethink of his options. A part of him quietly pieced together the puzzle of a part to Yumiko's past and understood while another part of him wondered why she didn't tell him. Then again, with a stabbing sense of guilt, she didn't know who **he** really was. He mentioned his sister quite often to her, but to actually tell her what kind of man he was before it all happened to shatter into pieces frightened him. 

Yes, Yukishiro Enishi was afraid. He wanted to tell her, yet he didn't know what her reaction might be. He, a man who had carefully planned an act of revenge for nearly a decade, a man who didn't used to care of what others thought of him except for his dead sister and himself, was afraid of what one woman who had manage to salvage a part of his sanity and lived with for the past six months would react. If anyone would have known his thoughts, they would say that he had grown soft, but Enishi stubbornly refused to believe that. He told his mind that it was impossible for anybody to understand him, but his heart told him otherwise.

After all…he was human.

Enishi lightly knocked on the door and then slid it open.

* * *

She stared down at her hands, welcoming the silence after her friend's lecture and treatment of her wound. Ruri knew that she had to tell him. If she trusted him, she had to tell him. 

Yumiko smiled sadly at the thought, wondering to herself if she was ready to fully trust another man again. It had taken her a year to feel completely comfortable in Gen's presence. It had taken her longer to be familiar with the other men of the world she now lived in. Yet to put faith into someone she had only known for months was something different. She admitted to herself that Enishi was different from the others she brought in. He never looked at her in the way the other men did. He never questioned unless he felt it necessary. Her children looked to him as a father and he returned their affection in his own way. And most importantly, he gave her back a sense of normalcy.

But was that enough?

A knock on the door startled her out of her thoughts and she looked up to see Enishi enter, though he looked a bit nervous. She smiled, both at his almost childlike nervousness and curiosity, although he quickly regained his usual complacent expression. His eyes met hers after glancing at the splint around her right leg and the pack of ice on top of it and he pulled a nearby chair closer to the bed.

"How are you?" he asked, never once taking his eyes off hers as he sat down.

Yumiko wondered to herself how Enishi would react if she told him that the intensity of his eyes affected how she thought.

She managed to tear herself away from his gaze to briefly look down at the splint on her leg. "Well, it was painful to straighten it, but now I'm fine."

She took in his silence, but she didn't want to look back at him because if she did… "Did you…kill those men?"

She heard him shift in his chair, his shadow moving in the dimming candlelight.

"…_Aa_," he replied after a while. "Does that…bother you?"

She shook her head, smiling softly to herself. "No…you're hiding from the government after all."

"Yumiko…"

It was time.

"Do you know a man named Fukihara Youji?"

She finally looked up, meeting his eyes once more.

* * *

Enishi watched her movements, how she fiddled with the fabric of her kimono and then lightly brush the fabric of the ice pack and the splint that held her leg in place. Her actions reminded him of an embarrassed child, but his mind told him otherwise as his eyes strayed to her exposed leg and then…elsewhere. 

Her voice took him out of those thoughts and the act of staring; he mentally berated himself for falling into the trap of desire.

"Did you…kill those men?"

Despite how soft she spoke, Enishi could hear the slight fear in her voice. He had often wondered how she would have reacted if she knew how dangerous of a man he was, but he never prepared himself to confront it so soon with her. He shifted uncomfortably in the chair he sat on, frantically thinking of a solution to the matter at hand.

Yet despite how many excuses he could think up, it only seemed right to tell her the truth.

"Aa…" he murmured, finally looking back at her. "Does that…bother you?"

It confused and relieved him at the same time when he saw her shake her head and smile like he had seen her done so many times before.

"No…you're hiding from the government after all."

Another heavy weight that lifted off his shoulders was immediately replaced with hesitation. Her voice sounded too calm for comfort.

"Yumiko…"

"Do you know a man named Fukihara Youji?"

His mind froze at the name. He knew the man very well; Fukihara Youji had been the one to recommend him to join the largest syndicate in Shanghai - the only other Japanese man in the syndicate besides him before they both branched off to make their own syndicates. He was Enishi's only rival there. If Enishi was cruel and ruthless in his acts, Youji was always two steps ahead.

Enishi masked his surprise well although he wondered to himself why and how Yumiko knew him. "No…why?"

Then he remembered why Yumiko looked so familiar to him when he first met her.

She looked away again, back down to her hands and the fabric of her kimono. She held a half-smile on her lips now, gazing sadly at her hands. "He is Rin and Ran's father."

His eyes widened slightly at her words as he let her continue, yet with each word she said, it began to further ignite the dark anger that burned inside him.

* * *

Back to the present 

Enishi couldn't help but chuckle at the irony of the situation that he was in now. He would have never imagined that he would fall into a predicament like this - to meet one of his formal rival's women and to stay with her...protect her.

A thought came to him: if he met Yumiko, actually met her when they were both still in Shanghai, what would have he done? Surely not what he wanted to do now - to ensure her safety and comfort both physically and emotionally. Or would he even with his plans of Jinchuu coming to reality then?

A small strand of hair strayed off from its current position curved on her face, catching his attention. Hesitantly, he reached out and brushed it back and was once again mesmerized by her sleeping form. His fingers lightly caressed the smoothness of her cheek and they unconsciously trailed down the frame of her face. It made sense to him now as to why she was used. Fukihara Youji was not someone who liked to keep the same "pet" every few months. And with Yumiko's beauty, it wasn't hard for him to take her in.

What surprised Enishi was that Yumiko herself was determined to give birth to Rin and Ran.

_"I at first contemplated on getting rid of any evidence of being pregnant when I found out…but I realized that it really wasn't the children's fault for having such a ruthless man as their father. If anything, I wanted to give them a chance, just for them.It wasn't their fault that put me in this place." _

"'Neesan, if you're out there somewhere, what should I do?" he whispered to himself before reluctantly pulling away from her cheekbone.

He stood up from the chair and stretched his limbs before quietly leaving the room. He needed some fresh air and some time alone to think.

* * *

Some hours later, late morning 

"Okaasan! Okaasan!"

Yumiko frowned at the two familiar voices and tried to shift her position on the bed only to wince at the effort. She opened her eyes to greet the sunlight that peeked high through the paper thin windows and peered down to what had caused her pain to move - her leg.

The memories of the night before rushed back to her and she sat straight up in bed, looking around the room. She remembered that Enishi stayed with her as she fell asleep, but he was no where to be found in the room now.

However, she could hear two pairs of footsteps approaching closer to her room and soon afterwards the door slid open to reveal her two children smiling brightly back at her.

"_Ohayou_, okaasan!" they excitedly announced.

She was still exhausted from the night before, but she still smiled cheerfully.

"Ohayou, my little ones," she greeted as they ran towards her. She wrapped her arms around them as soon as they got on the bed. Her hair cascaded over her face and they laughed as it tickled their faces.

Her smile widened as she watched them laugh. No matter how many times she felt down, they always seemed to cheer her up. If her children were happy, then she was happy.

"What are you two doing here?" Yumiko asked them as they scooted closer to her and she took the melted ice off of her bag.

They were careful to not sit near her leg. She guessed that Ruri, Gen, or Enishi told them that she hurt her leg.

"Otousan is making breakfast," Ran answered. "And he told us to wake you up."

_Enishi can cook?_ was Yumiko's initial thought. He only helped her out in the kitchen once in a while but they were mainly simple tasks like carrying the vegetables over or some minor task like that. But she guessed that since he did live alone before they met, he probably did know how to work in a kitchen.

"So what is otousan making?" she asked.

Her children looked at one another before looking back at her.

Ran shrugged and replied. "We don't know."

"Otousan said that it was a SE-CR-ET," Rin added.

"But Auntie Ruri was trying to tell otousan what to do," Ran said with a worried look on his face.

Yumiko caught onto her son's words and looked around for anything to lean her weight on. Luckily enough, whether her friend was testing her to obey her instructions of rest or not, there were a pair of crutches in the corner of the room.

"Ne, can you two get those two sticks for okaasan?" she gestured to the crutches.

Ever the energetic one, Rin hopped off the bed and ran to the crutches while her brother slowly made his way down and over. Yumiko inwardly smiled at the vast differences between her two children. Ran definitely obtained his quiet demeanor from her, but Rin she assumed got her cheerful and bubbly personality from her grandmother - her own mother. Yumiko's lips curled into a sad smile at the thought.

She wondered to herself how her estranged family was doing now.

* * *

Nearby 

_Man, this place is filthy. _

The young man continued to walk down the dirt road, ignoring the stares he was receiving. Sure, he had to admit that he looked out of place. Decked out in Chinese attire made from the highest quality, he looked much brighter than the shabby, dim clothes of the locals. Rakuninmura didn't look as bad as some of the streets in Hong Kong and Shanghai, though.

Yet he couldn't believe that his older sister was actually **living** here.

The young man approached what looked like a gate and, compared to the other houses in Rakuninmura, a well-kept home behind it. It had to be the right place - he noticed some of the slight touches of his older sister that perhaps only those who knew her really well could see - but it looked empty.

"If you're looking for the people who live there," an old voice said behind him, "they're not home. They haven't been back since last night."

The man turned around to face what looked like an old man, wearing the same shabby clothing as the other locals except that he had an outrageously long gray beard and wore a straw hat and sandals. Nothing was in his hands, so to the young man he didn't look like a threat to his safety.

The man wondered to himself what did the old man mean by "they". He at first hesitated to reply, worried that his voice would give away his true identity, but he decided that the old man might be able to help him to track his sister down.

"Um…do you know by any chance where they went?" he asked, his voice soft-spoken.

If the old man gave any sort of reaction to his voice, he didn't show it.

"Well, I do have an idea where they could have gone, but may I ask why you are looking for them?" he asked. "And which of 'them' are you looking for? Even though this is a very neglected part of town, we like to protect our own kind, if you know what I mean."

The young man nodded in understanding, brushing back his silk black air in an attempt to hide his embarrassment. For some odd reason, he couldn't help but trust this man.

"My name is Nagasaki Ayeka," she replied. "I'm Nagasaki Yumiko's sister."

* * *

Elsewhere... 

_This place has not changed one bit… _

The government may have switched hands, the cities may be beginning to be filled with the presence of foreigners and the power of the technology they had that many areas of this side of the world didn't, but to him the country of Japan still remained stagnant, helpless. The man turned his eyes away from the approaching Tokyo Harbor, reliving old memories as he turned to his second-in-command.

This was going to be too much of an easy prey to catch.

"So how are our men progressing here, Tsuke?" he asked the slightly shorter, muscled man in black next to him.

"The deal with the merchant went smoothly," Tsuke automatically replied, careful with his words in case someone overheard them. "We should be able to obtain the package within the week."

The man nodded, absorbing the information quickly. He folded his arms behind his back, careful to hide the tattoo of his origin on his arm beneath the Western clothes he wore.

After a moment of silence, the man added, "And him?"

Tsuke hesitated to reply immediately for he knew how his leader reacted to poor progress.

"Since his disappearance six months ago," he began, "there hasn't been a trace of Yukishiro Enishi. Of course, we still have yet to check all the areas of Tokyo and the surrounding countryside. The government has since stopped searching for him."

Tsuke's leader uttered a low chuckle. "Have they? He was beaten down that horribly by Battousai that there is no need for the Meiji government to hunt him down?"

Tsuke didn't answer; he assumed that his leader was voicing his thoughts out loud.

"Make sure you find him soon, Tsuke," the man replied as the ship they stood on docked at the harbor. "If not, then our entire ring in Shanghai will crumble as well as our plans."

Tsuke merely nodded. "Of course, Youji-_sama_."

* * *

Ruri's home/clinic 

"You know, that's really an odd way to cut radish."

Enishi's jaw tightened, trying his best to not snap at the doctor who was doing her best at annoying him.

_Maybe volunteering to cook wasn't a good idea after all,_ he thought.

"I'm sure that you can cut radish better than I can, Ruri," he replied as nonchalantly as possible.

He honestly wanted to be alone, which was why he told Rin and Ran to wake up their mother. However, since Ruri had no customers yet and since she loved being the "expert" at everything, she decided to try her hand at instructing Enishi what to do after Gen had gone off for the day's work.

Well, it was more like **commanding**.

He was doing all the things he had learned over the years, whether it was by memory or mimicking, while trying to patiently ignore Ruri's commentary. It had been a while since he actually used such a kitchen like this, but the memories were coming back to him - memories of the happier times when he had somewhat of a decent childhood, before his father and then his sister left.

He had just finished dumping in a bit of the radish he cut into the miso when her voice brought him back to the reality of the present.

"Is everything okay in here?" Yumiko's voice filtered in the room.

Both occupants turned around to see her standing in the entryway to the kitchen on a pair of crutches, still leaning heavily against her left leg. Ran and Rin were hiding behind her. Ruri immediately forgot about Enishi and headed over to the injured woman, all the while scolding her. She merely laughed and gave some sort of reply when she looked up.

Theirs eyes met.

But the contact was broken when a voice outside called, "Excuse me!"

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: **Much apologies for being a little bit late on this release of the chapter! To be honest, I was wondering how to continue on without giving too much information away as well as introducing some new characters. I thank those who have reviewed (as well as those who have read and didn't review, too!). I'm actually quite happy how this is beginning to turn out -- it's much different from the old version in more ways than one, but in my head it's still the same plot. And now since school has started, it might take me a bit longer to finish each chapter, but I'll still make an effort to get each chapter done within about a month. And to be honest, it's good to be back in the RK fanfiction business (smiles). 

If there are any grammatical/spelling errors...please let me know. I had to mad-rush typing this without giving a glance over before submitting since there's class the next day TT

**GLOSSARY OF UNKNOWN WORDS**

baka - stupid/idiot/etc

aa - something equivalent to "yeah"...it's a bit hard to describe this completely

Jinchuu - Earth's justice; in the manga, this is to contradict what "Tenchu" (Heaven's justice) was for those who went against the Shogunate during the Bakamatsu -- translations of this term vary

ohayou - short for "ohayou gozaimasu"; means "good morning"

(name)-sama - an honorific of the highest degree...it can be translated as "lord" or "lady"


	6. Chp 5, Confrontation

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:** Hm...I'm not quite satisfied with this chapter. It's quite amazing how much you can plan out a chapter and then realize how hard it is to get it _exactly_ the way you want it to turn out. Of course, I am exploring a little bit more on the actual storyline from the original, and it's a bit difficult to get everything I want into one chapter. So...what I left behind will be added to the next chapter, but not like you guys mind much...right? Hey, it's a shorter read!

Anyways, I also finally got the last set of volumes I was missing from my Ruroken manga -- the actual depiction of Jinchuu as told by the creator, Nobuhiro Watsuki. And you know, after reading it all, I realize that my depiction of Rakuninmura (known as "the lost village" in the US version) is **very **different as depicted in the manga. It just goes to show you how much you can imagine with just translations (which I was working with at the time I started on this story) rather than scanslations. Oops.

So...this is a bit AU in a way. At least in the depiction of Rakuninmura.

And my apologies for the delay. School has been fairly busy for me these days...

Another character appears in here as a warning. He won't play a big of a role in this story, but I will use him in a Saitou/Tokio story that I have had in mind for a while. Of course, that'll be much later after I've finished this story.

**- Rurouni Kenshin: True Love -**

_Chapter Five: Confrontation_

Both occupants in the room turned around to see her standing in the entryway to the kitchen on a pair of crutches, still leaning heavily against her left leg. Rin and Ran hid behind her. Ruri immediately forgot about Enishi and headed over to the injured woman, all the while scolding her. She merely laughed and gave some sort of reply when she looked up. Their eyes met. But the contact was broken when a voice called.

"Excuse me!"

* * *

The old man was kind enough to guide her through the maze that was known as Rakuninmura to this rundown clinic. When she first introduced herself as Yumiko's sister, the man was surprised then immediately fell to suspicion. He took a closer look at her to the point where she felt uncomfortable, but the old man - who introduced himself to her as Oibore - smiled and apologized for mistaking her as a man. Nagasaki Ayeka wasn't surprised; rather, it was what she had intended. However, despite the fact that she had short, cropped hair and a weathered face from the years of working outside, the similarities between her older sister and herself physically remained. 

Stomping the thoughts down, Ayeka patiently waited for someone to come out. She knew that there was somebody home - she could smell the food cooking in the kitchen from here. A woman stepped out from the back and she was busy typing an apron around her kimono, apparently prepared to perform an operation of some sort.

"_Irrashaimas-_," the woman looked up when her eyes met Ayeka's, her voice died off. "-_se_."

Ayeka shifted nervously under the woman's stupefied gaze. Ever since she decided to come and find her sister, she was worried that this reaction might happen.

"…Ayeka?" Ayeka looked up in surprise, wondering how the woman knew her.The woman came closer to her and she tensed.

"Nagasaki Ayeka, right?" the woman asked again. She then pointed at herself. "Don't you remember me? Ruri. Takeda Ruri."

Ayeka scrutinized the person in front of her until she began to recognize certain features about the woman, especially her eyes. They were eyes that always held a certain defiance about her persona.

"…Ruri…oneesan?" she voiced the familiar name.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe how much you've grown!" Ruri commented, taking another look at the younger woman. "You look exactly like Yumi-chan but with short hair and a tan."

Ayeka bit her lower lip at the comment. "_Ah sou_?"

Before Ruri could ask anymore questions, another voice interrupted them.

"…Aye…ka?"

The addressee turned in the direction of the voice that called her, her eyes locking onto ones that matched the color of her own. Yumiko stared wide-eyed at her, and behind her sister were three faces that Nagasaki Ayeka didn't recognize.

* * *

She watched him set the tea cups down awkwardly as if he wasn't used to serving in a long time - if at all. Yumiko inwardly smiled at his attempt to hide his mistakes, although she wouldn't admit to herself that his sense of curiosity was very cute. 

"Arigatou, Enishi," she said to him with a smile, purposefully ignoring the stare her sister was giving her.

"Mm…it's all right," he replied. He felt a need that the two needed to be alone to talk. "I'm going to find Gen and see what else needs to be done. Is it all right that I take Rin and Ran with me?"

Yumiko nodded, giving him another smile that told him she understood. "_Gomen ne_."

The look in his emerald eyes softened just enough for only her to take notice before he got up and left the room. A few minutes passed between her and the other occupant in the room before the latter spoke.

"Who's he?" Ayeka asked her.

"Someone who lives with me and the children," Yumiko replied, although she knew that wasn't the entire truth. "When did you get back?"

"Two days ago," Ayeka answered, frowning at her older sister's response. She decided to follow along with her off-topic play anyway. "Okaasan's thinking of opening up a silk store in Tokyo, but for now we're at the mansion. What happened to your leg?"

"Okaasan's going to open a store? I'm surprised that otousan is letting her."

"They're not together anymore." Ayeka paused for emphasis, not sure how to explain the situation since she wasn't very good with words. "She left otousan a year after you…left. What happened to your leg?"

"Oh…this?" Yumiko glanced down at her right leg which was still in its splint since the early morning. "I was just being careless and sprained it a little bit, that's all."

"Did that guy -"

"Enishi saved me from getting even injured further," Yumiko cut her off, knowing exactly well what her sister was about to ask. It sounded like a conversation they had a long time ago when they were in Shanghai. "He wasn't the one who hurt me, Ayeka."

Ayeka once again bit her lower lip, frowning, before she looked down at her drink. Although they were only three years apart, she still felt like a child being reprimanded by her mother. Four years apart didn't change that feeling.

"…I'm sorry."

Yumiko smiled at Ayeka and took a sip of her tea. "There's nothing to apologize for, Ayeka. I understand that you were getting the wrong impression, so I wanted to give myself a chance to explain a little bit. Enishi is nothing like Youji, so you don't have to worry."

Another moment of silence fell between them.

"…Are those two kids…yours?"

"Rin and Ran? Yes. They're one of the main reasons why you can see me now."

Ayeka glanced up from her cup to see her sister's smile and the distant, sad look in her eyes. "…They look a lot like you."

Yumiko chuckled. "Everyone says that. Ran looks more like him than me, though…" She quickly changed the subject. "How did you find me here? How is everyone?"

Ayeka bit her lower lip again, trying her best to keep her annoyance level down. It didn't seem to her that her sister had changed at all during the four years they had no contact.

"Like I said earlier, okaasan and otousan aren't together anymore. You can say that she's doing fine…she's a lot more chirpy than when she was with otousan. And Akito, well, you can say that he's a bit of a troublemaker nowadays. Always getting into someone's business without even asking them and then gets hurt in the process of helping them."

Yumiko smiled at the commentary. "Hmm…so he's like okaasan in that sense."

"He's more like a pain in the ass now, if you ask me. When you were still around -" Ayeka cut herself short at what she was about to say. After some thought, she decided that it was necessary to finish the thought although her voice was softer than when it came out before. "When you were still around, he wasn't like that."

She could feel Yumiko's curious eyes on her, but Ayeka forced herself to not let it bother her. She instead looked away from Yumiko and down at her hands which was wrapped around the porcelain cup of tea.

"He was the one who finally found out where you were through someone that he helped out back in Shanghai. Ever since we left otousan, okaasan had been trying her hardest to find you through the limited resources she had. When Aki told us a month ago where you were finally, she immediately organized a trip back to Japan. I volunteered myself to search around to find you and make sure that the man who told us where you were didn't lie."

Yumiko's smile faded from her lips although the expression in her eyes changed slightly. She could sense her younger sister's anxiety and curiosity, and the older woman couldn't blame her. She was partially at fault for making her younger sister turn this way.

"I see," Yumiko took another sip of her drink. "As you can see, with the exception of my leg right now, I'm doing just fine. It was a little bit hard to adjust to the life here at first, but…the people here are very nice. They don't pry into others' pasts like some people in the city do and they accept anyone who has lost their way, hence the name of the area."

"…And that guy?"

Yumiko smiled into her drink. It was a vague question that she herself asked herself countless of times. What was he to her?

"Enishi…Enishi is a little bit special."

* * *

(_Tokyo Police Station, in the midst of an investigation…_)

He stared down at the papers in his hand, detailing every bit of information possible of the scene. One victim involved, one dead, one possible witness if the man awoke from the hard hit to the head. The only problem was that the "victim" was gone, leaving the scene before any of the locals of the surrounding area could make it outside in time. It was a populated area but hard to maneuver around due to the walls that were a part of the maze of Tokyo's alleyways.

So even if the locals had heard a scream, they wouldn't have made it out in time to see what had happened until it was all over.

Saitou Hajime inhaled a whiff of his cigarette and tossed the papers back down on his desk. Usually he wouldn't be assigned to such a small investigation like finding out who killed who and it wasn't in his field of assignments to do so. However, there were a shortage of police officers since the Boshin War and the Shishio Makoto incident and this particular crime sparked interest among the idiot higher ups in the government who always looked for their own well being. Also included in their pathetic worries was currently one of the Meiji government's notorious fugitives as of late: Yukishiro Enishi.

The former third captain of the Shinsengumi hadn't given a thought about the man responsible for selling arms to Shishio Makoto since his escape from the boat to Tokyo months before. It wasn't necessary to pursue him since he had become an empty shell after his fight with Battousai, and Saitou himself was looking forward to getting onto a new assignment when the higher ups tossed this mess onto his desk. After looking at the details, it did perk some interest. Saitou recalled the powerful blows the white-haired youth dealt on Battousai and his former organization's number two and saw that the attack patterns and damage were similar.

An enormous amount of force was used in the attacks but not in the way how an idiotic rooster head he knew wielded it. It was precise, controlled, as if the assailant knew **exactly** where to hit, which place would be the quickest to take down.

Now Saitou Hajime had to wait for the other suspect to awaken to confirm his suspicions wrong.

A knock came at the door.

"Who is it?" he asked out of habit, although he already knew who it was behind the door.

"Fujita-san," the person said on the other side. "It's Kuroundo."

Saitou took the cigarette out of his mouth and carefully placed it on the side of his ashtray. Although this trivial incident did catch his attention, there was more to take care of in order to protect the citizens of Japan. "Come in."

A young man of twenty years entered, his medium-built and lithe frame sliding in between the space between the door and the doorway as if it were a dance before he closed it behind him. He did not wear the typical police uniform like many in the force did, opting to wear a simple hakama and haori combination like any traditional Japanese man. He had dark brown hair with bangs that covered his garnet colored eyes and a sword, a traditional katana, strapped on his side. When Saitou was first introduced to the boy by his wife ten years ago, he didn't like the idea that his foster daughter would eventually be wed to someone as reserved and simple as Higashi Kuroundo, but the boy was quick to gain his respect underneath his careful watch. His mannerisms were the exact opposite of the broom head that he worked with, and the former Shinsengumi captain found that oddly amusing.

"Have you been able to discover where they went yet?" he asked the young man who shook his head.

"They seem to have entered through forged IDs and passed through customs easily," Kuroundo gave him a file, "but after questioning the dealer we captured yesterday, he spilled out that Fukihara Youji was an acquaintance of sorts with Yukishiro Enishi and returned to Japan to continue the business that the latter got arrested by. The two were heads of rival syndicates but before then they came from the same one in Shanghai, sharing ideas about overthrowing the current government by selling the top items of weaponry through the black market. Fukihara Youji even managed to convince many officials with the opium trade long before the reappearance of Shishio Makoto."

Saitou smiled faintly at hearing the link between his current target and Yukishiro Enishi. _It seems that things are going to be rather interesting._

"And the broom head?"

"Cho-san says that he will probably be able to obtain the information by our informant this evening. He told me to go ahead and report what I found first."

Saitou nodded and stood up, putting out his cigarette in the process. "Then let us make a visit to the hospital, Kuroundo-kun."

Kuroundo looked at his superior curiously. "What for, Fujita-san?"

Saitou patted the younger man on the shoulder as he walked passed him and opened the door.

"We are going to find Yukishiro Enishi's whereabouts."

* * *

(_Somewhere in the Rakuninmura Prefecture_)

Fate must have decided to play a part in this day for as soon as he was able and ready to do a routine that he was used to doing for the past few months, there was nothing he was needed for. Gen had decided to give Enishi a break, literally shooing him off the premises of the house he was working on.

**_"You need to take care of Yumiko. She can't walk around cleaning the house and taking care of the kids at the same time with that leg of hers. And you know as well as I do that she won't listen to my sister's instructions, and I'm sure that she'll need your help more than I do right now."_**

Enishi continued to contemplate on the older man's words when the light weight on his shoulders began to swing her legs.

"Ne, 'tousan," Rin asked him. "Who was that person that 'kaasan went to talk to?"

He looked up at the girl that stared down at him with her big sea green eyes and looked down at the boy holding his hand who was looking up at him, the same question lingering in his eyes.

"Hmm….I don't know," he replied as they continued to walk down the dirt path. "It's someone that your mother knows."

"Do you think that she's 'kaasan's sister?" Ran suggested. Enishi hid his surprise; he knew that the boy was more observant than his sister, but it never crossed his mind that Ran would figure it out so quickly.

"Hmm…maybe. Why do you think that, Ran?"

"Well…'cause she looks like 'kaasan."

Enishi smiled at his observation and decided to change the subject. It didn't surprise him that Yumiko might have siblings, yet he found it odd that in the six months that they knew each other, she never mentioned her family very often. Other than the fact that she was from a well-established family before thrown out of her home, Enishi didn't really know much of the family she had lived with before she was thrown out into the street. It made him wonder if she trusted him.

"What do you two want to eat?" he asked them. "We can get something for your mother, too, before we get back to the clinic."

"_Yakidango_!" Rin shouted.

"_Soba_," Ran calmly replied at the same time.

Enishi chuckled at the vast difference of taste between the twins. He was amazed that Yumiko always managed to somehow make them agree on something.

"All right, how about we go get some tofu and see if we can add that to the broth I made this morning," he reasoned and gave a glare at the man he had noticed following them since they left the home Gen was at, but it was quick enough for the children to not notice. "Does that sound okay?"

"Ha-i."

* * *

(_closeby…_)

The man quickly turned in the opposite direction as soon as he managed to get Yukishiro Enishi's attention. His eyes darted around nervously as the quick glare ingrained itself into his mind and his heart felt that it was about to explode. It was amazing that he had been able to trail the white-haired man this far and to the extent that the man thought unnoticed. Yet the cool glare of Yukishiro Enishi's gaze made his blood freeze. It still possessed the killer instinct that he remembered when he met the man with his boss a while ago.

He had to give a report to his superior despite the risks now. Knowing Yukishiro Enishi's whereabouts was essential for the plan to be kept in secrecy.

* * *

(_Some hours later…_)

Much to her friend's protests, Yumiko decided to go back home despite the fact that she had a bad leg and could barely do much. It didn't hurt as much now that she was standing for a long time and the blood circulation to her leg was returning, though. The crutches she was given kept her balance and her free leg was beginning to adjust to the new weight she put on it.

Yumiko paused in mid dry of the dishes, thinking back to her sister's words earlier that day before she left.

_**"You should come over and stay with us, oneesan. Okaasan WANTS you back. It's not as if SHE was the person who wanted you out in the first place. She'll be really happy to see her grandchildren."**_

"That may be true…" she murmured out loud and set the bowl she was drying on the counter.

Her mother was never one to be harsh on her children. Although she had reprimanded Yumiko for her rash actions, she never did once tell her to leave like her father did once he found out about her pregnancy. Yumiko knew that her mother was a very open-minded person and liked to stick to her ways no matter how much her father disagreed. Perhaps that was why her parents separated.

However, she didn't want to leave Enishi. He had done so much for her and she for him. She didn't want to force him to go to a place where he might be found, and she knew that he didn't want to burden her with his history as much as he thought he did already.

Rakuninmura was a place where she belonged to, a woman who had her family ties severed from her four years ago - pregnant out of wedlock and with no other place to go. But now her family wanted her back, not living in a place like this. But she remembered that Enishi **had** nobody to return to nor who wanted him back; she and her children **were** the only people he could turn to.

Yumiko understood what Enishi meant to her at that one thought. He was more than just a person whom she took in, more than someone who took care of her children without question, more than someone who she found herself drawn to. He was a part of her new family. He was her pillar of normalcy, her protector…and someone she loved just the way he was despite how much she still did not know.

Was she the same way to him?

"Excuse me, is anyone home?" an unfamiliar voice outside broke her train of thought, and Yumiko quickly steadied herself on her crutches and hobbled outside.

At the gate, she could see two men waiting there behind the dilapidated structure. As she got closer, she noticed that the shorter one was awfully young, dressed in typical hakama and haori. The other, much taller man, however, made her heart stop. He was wearing a police uniform.

"Can I help you?" she slowly asked the men, cautiously looking between them.

Both men had katana strapped around her waists, which she found odd because of the ban set in place but neither man seemed threatening to her. Something in the back of her head told her that these men were not ordinary policemen. The taller man in uniform lightly tipped his had down as a gesture of greetings, his smile never leaving his face. Yumiko couldn't help but notice that the man's eyes were fairly narrow.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, miss," the taller man greeted her amiably. "Do you live here?"

"Yes…is there something wrong?" The young man hadn't said anything yet and it was making her nervous.

"No, not at all, miss," the taller man continued. "My name is Lieutenant Fujita Goro from the Tokyo Police department, and this is my partner Higashi Kuroundo. Are you Nagasaki Yumiko-san?"

"Hai…"

"The owner of the Akabeko was concerned about your safety and asked the police to check on you," the young man Kuroundo explained.

A light wave of relief settled in her mind. It sounded like Tae to her to do something like that, and it wasn't the first time that she asked police to come over to check on her after coming home late from the Akabeko a few times before.

"Oh, I see…"

"Nagasaki-san," the man who introduced himself first addressed her. "Since you were in the vicinity, were you aware of a crime that occurred last night?"

He noticed her stiffen and took that as a sign that she knew something. "There were two men involved at the attempted assault and rape of a woman. Both men were on the wanted list for the police for some weeks now, but now one of them had been murdered and the other is recovering in the hospital and under tight watch by the police."

**_Did you…kill those men?_** Her earlier suspicions took over again. These men definitely weren't ordinary policemen.

"_Sou…_"

_**Aa…does that bother you?**_

"If you do know anything about the crime, Nagasaki-san, please tell us. The man in the hospital reported after regaining consciousness that his partner, his older brother, was about to his assault on an unknown woman that they targeted earlier when a man with white hair intervened."

Fujita's smile faded. "We have suspicions that he might be a fugitive who had been running a black market weapons organization in Shanghai and Tokyo before he disappeared from our custody six months before. Do you happen to know anything, Nagasaki-san?"

_These men…are they looking for Enishi?_

Any normal citizen would have said the truth if someone of that degree was still missing, but this was Rakuninmura. It was a place that accepted anyone who had lost their way and lost everything regardless if you were a fugitive or not.

And it was a place that protected its own. Not many police ventured into the area because of it.

"Ie…" she softly replied, her voice gaining strength as she continued on. "I came home without hearing anything, nor do I recall ever seeing a man as you describe living here."

"And your leg?" Fujita asked her.

Yumiko gave him a smile. "I twisted my knee earlier this morning while trying to get the dishes, Lieutenant Fujita-san. I just came back from the local clinic here."

* * *

(_Nearby_)

He was just coming around the corner when he noticed their presence, and Enishi quickly veered back around the corner.

"'Tousan, what's wrong?" Ran asked.

"Why're we hiding?" Rin added.

Enishi merely put a finger over his lips and glanced over the corner, watching the two men talking to Yumiko closely. He didn't recognize the small man, but the much taller man he knew very well.

Former third captain of the Shinsengumi and currently one of the Meiji government's top special operations officers, Saitou Hajime. Did this mean that they found him?

* * *

**  
MORE AUTHOR'S NOTES: **Oh, you can't get rid of me, can you? I just wanted to add that yes, I did state in an earlier chapter that Ruri and Yumiko hadn't known each other for very long and yet here how come all of a sudden Ayeka knows Ruri? It'll be explained in the next chapter. I would have explained it in this chapter, but that would make this chapter extremely long and in writing would be about 15 pages worth. You wouldn't want to read 15 pages worth of text on just one chapter, do you?**  
**

**GLOSSARY OF UNKNOWN WORDS: **

Irrashaimasse - the equivalent to "welcome!" in English; typically used if you enter a Japanese store or restaurant

Ah sou? - in this context it is similar to "oh, really?"; I may be wrong…but my Japanese teacher uses it often when we speak to her laughs

Gomen ne - again in this context, it is similar to "thank you" but in a humble, short, and informal way; in reality it's similar to saying "I'm sorry for burdening you with such a tedious task" - yay for Japanese humbleness

Yakidango - grilled mochi on a stick, covered in a sweet syrupy sauce; what is mochi? Well…mochi's mochi )

Soba - Japanese buckwheat noodles, served cooked and in a variety of ways (plain with salt, as Saitou likes it; with soy sauce, etc.)


	7. Chapter 6, Return to Society

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Apologies for the extremely long delay! Lots of things had been going on since the last time I updated and I was so focused onto them that it sucked the life out of me (plus, writer's block doesn't help . ). But here is the next chapter!

**-Rurouni Kenshin: True Love-**

**Chapter Six: Return to Society**

Saitou Hajime regarded the woman before him more closely. His instinct told him that she was hiding something, but if it concerned the man he was looking for he wasn't sure. **Everyone **in Rakuninmura hid something and it made it much harder for him to find the current outstanding fugitive. It also didn't help that the woman before him kept her guard up extremely well with the exception of the small lapse when he and Kuroundo began their questioning.

All that the former Shinsengumi captain could do now was to return Yumiko's smile.

"I see," Saitou said in response to her explanation. "I apologize for intruding, Nagasaki-san. Thank you for answering our questions."

Yumiko nodded. "I wish you luck on your case, Lieutenant Fujita-san."

_I hope you never find him._

Both men bowed and she returned the action, Yumiko continuing to watch them exit from her home at the makeshift gate.

When they were out of hearing distance, the young man next to Saitou finally spoke. "I think she might be the victim from last night."

Saitou didn't quite reply to Kuroundo's comment, but he did keep the thought in mind. It was very feasible, after all.

"Tell me why you think so, Kuroundo?"

The younger man was quiet for a moment before phrasing his answer. "She looked as if she was hesitating to reply to your initial question regarding the incident. And.."

"She might be hiding the man we are looking for based on what we have heard about from some of the locals outside of Rakuninmura," Saitou finished. "However, we don't quite have enough evidence to prove that."

Kuroundo remained silent as Saitou took out a cigarette and held it between his lips, lighting the stick with a match. It might be a difficult to complete this task in such a community as Rakuninmura, but it was important to find Yukishiro Enishi for the safety of Japan if Fukihara Youji's plans were initiated.

"Keep a close of an eye on her as you can for the week."

"_Wakarimashita._"

* * *

Yumiko watched them go, letting out a sigh of relief as soon as she thought they were far enough from home. However, it still didn't ease her worries. They would be back, and they would watch her. For once, she was grateful for her injury which kept her confined at home for most of the day. Yet if Enishi were to come out… 

She shook her head at the thought as she turned around and began to hobble back to the home. She needed to tell Enishi about the police, and she knew that he would somehow keep himself hidden even if it meant that he needed to hide away from them, from her.

Yumiko felt a slight tug on her heart as she sighed, her lips forming into a thin line. She knew that this was going to happen eventually; Enishi had told her, warned her that there was going to be a time when he **had **to leave even when he didn't want to because of his status as fugitive. How dangerous of a fugitive was he, she had no idea, but she did know that he would do whatever possible to keep her, her children, and their friends out of the troubles he carried with him.

But for some odd reason, Yumiko didn't want Enishi to carry that burden on his own. He had done so much for her that she had not realized until now. It was only right for her to return the favor and keep him away from the eyes of the government.

The sounds of her children's chatter and the smell of food from the room that served as their eating area drew her back from her thoughts. She slid the door open to find her children and Enishi sitting at the table and eating. All heads turned at her entrance, and her children like always greeted her in cheerful fashion.

"Ohayou, kaasan!" Rin chirped with a smile on her face.

"When did you all return?" Yumiko asked as she entered the room. Enishi stood up and helped her in.

"We went to Ruri's home to get breakfast that was left behind and went through the back," Enishi explained to her.

His eyes met hers as they sat down on the floor, assuring her that he had not been discovered. It was a brief glimpse, but it lifted one small worry off her mind.

"'Tousan's food is really good!" Rin piped up once again, diverting their attention back to he matter at hand which was eating a late breakfast.

"Really?" Yumiko asked as she grabbed the only empty bowl and began to help herself to some rice. "Is it better than 'kaasan's?"

A small silence followed as the eating continued before Ran, who had remained quiet the entire time, said:

"'Kaasan's cooking is better."

* * *

(later that evening) 

He was sitting on the porch again, watching the night sky. She had left him temporarily to put the children to bed despite her condition. Yumiko insisted that she could not be sitting around all day and let him do all the work. She felt guilty that he had to stay at home with her, she explained. Enishi finally relented after realizing that he hadn't put **any **child to sleep before, letting the twins tire themselves out and fall asleep on their own. And Yumiko was their mother, after all.

They had not talked about what happened earlier that day.

Enishi understood that they both kept quiet about the matter on behalf of the children, but it left him wondering what to do. He couldn't **leave **them, nor could he allow them to be involved in the sins he committed in the past. He looked down at his hands, hands that had been long stained with blood and were now worn with the burden he put on himself. A small flashback of his sister's image blurred his vision until the sounds of her footsteps drew him back to reality.

Yumiko was getting used to the crutches she was given, having hobbled around with them all day. He noticed how fluidly she moved across the wood, creating a sequence of her movements. Both crutches forward, shift the weight to the left side of her body, and pull. It was simple yet mesmerizing to watch at the same time.

As she came closer, Enishi stood up and walked over to help her even though he knew she would fuss about it. An odd thought crossed his mind. They had only been together for six months yet they were both beginning to pick up what lie on the surface. They were small things, really – nit-picky habits that made the other aware of their presence, their personality. It was these things that allowed them to be comfortable with one another and allowed them to let themselves dig a little further beneath the surface.

"Really, Enishi, you don't have to help me down," Yumiko complained with a tint of annoyance locked in her soft voice. "I can do it myself."

A small smile appeared on his lips as he felt her steady some of her weight on his shoulders. "I can't help but be helpful."

"Ha ha, very funny," she replied and they both sat on the edge of the porch. Her arm still had not left his shoulder and lingered there for a moment. That Enishi didn't really mind too much, but it was her following action that caught him off guard.

Her hand reached for his eyes, hesitantly brushing away a white lock that fell in front of his face. He tensed for a moment before he relaxed his muscles and allowed her to push the lock of hair back. He turned to look at her eyes, but she seemed to be more preoccupied with something else.

"Your hair's getting long," she commented as she moved her hand back to her lap. "Do you want me to cut it?"

He blinked. The information had yet to process in his head. "Huh?"

She smiled, her eyes greeting his now. "Do you want me to cut your hair? It looks like it's bothering you."

"Oh." Feeling stupid and a bit embarrassed, he brushed back his unruly hair and thanked the night for covering the shade of his face.

When **was **the last time he cut his hair? He honestly couldn't remember, but perhaps it was a long time ago. The unruly white hair now fell just above his shoulders, though he had most of it tied back in a short ponytail.

"It doesn't bother me too much," he replied, looking away for a brief moment before turning back to her again who was chuckling on his behalf.

"Are you afraid that I'm going to cut it too short or something?" she asked him with a smile which he couldn't help but share. "I have scissors, unless you're the type who actually uses a knife to cut your hair."

He couldn't help but laugh at her humor and the image of himself using a blade to cut his hair. He had actually never done it that way before; the only people who ever cut his hair were the barbers affiliated with the syndicate he worked in and the one he ran and…

"No, I think it's all right," he said has his laughter died down, looking back at the sky. "It's better this way."

He wanted to add that he didn't want to go back to who he was before. One side of him chided that it was an inane response, yet the other side of him understood his way of thinking at the moment. Once again he fell back into the bind he found himself in – leaving and lose his sense of normalcy or staying and possibly lose the people he wished to protect.

She didn't reply to his answer and in a way he was glad. Yet something inside him said that the answer wasn't enough.

"Yumiko –"

"You don't have to force yourself," she interrupted him. "If you don't feel comfortable in talking about it, then you don't have to force yourself to. I can wait."

He paused, contemplating on her words and touched by them. Yet the need to tell her at least **something **and not just the vague details he provided when he first arrived was too great.

"That man that talked to you today," he began. "He asked if you knew me, didn't he?"

He noted the light tension in her body. "His real name is not Fujita Goro. He is a former captain of the Shinsengumi – Saitou Hajime. Right now he is a special assignments officer and is quite good at his job." He let a bitter smile fall on his lips as he continued. "It wouldn't take him too long to discover that I have been staying with you."

His smile faded as he focused on the events that led him here with a small, contemplating frown on his face. She had just told him like the previous times before that she was fine waiting, allowing him the chance to feel comfortable and confident enough to choose the right time to delve back into his blood-ridden, painful past. However, it didn't sit well with him – especially when **she **revealed a part that haunted her constantly and she had yet to know the full details of his. Yet he knew that Yumiko was someone who didn't **care **what kind of person he was then; all that mattered was now.

Something inside him nagged at the possibility that she might be afraid.

"Black market weapons trade and organized crime," he said after some time. "That's what…I did before coming back here to settle…personal matters."

"A syndicate?" Yumiko knew enough that on the first day they met, his clothing was not native in origin.

"Leading one, yes," he answered. "I had…sold something to a man that wanted to overthrow the current government and instill chaos into the country. I suppose that's why they want to find me."

Yumiko contemplated on his words, realizing how ironic his and **that man's **lives were similar. She was not afraid then – when she was still with her family and desperate to escape tradition – and she certainly wasn't afraid now when she had nothing else but the small circle of people around her.

They were all she needed.

She placed a hand over his, wondering to herself just how long his hands had been rough and calloused over the years. How long did his hands fight to stay alive?

What were the personal matters left here that led him back to Japan?

"Let's go to my mother's house."

"Huh?" He was a bit surprised at the suggestion, slightly distracted by the warmth and comfort of her hand over his, her fingers providing the same feathery touch his shoulder received earlier.

"My younger sister, Ayeka, came to find me," she explained. "She…my mother and my younger brother were looking for me…they wanted me to come back."

A soft, melancholic smile curled on her lips. "My parents aren't together anymore, so there isn't any opposition. We can stay there for a while."

"Yumiko – "

"The person you were then doesn't mean that you are that same person now," she told him, her hand holding his tightly. "I won't leave you."

She looked up and met his eyes in the moonlit darkness.

"I'm not afraid. I'm not going to be repulsed by your past." She shook her head as if to emphasize the importance of her words to him. "Even though the past creates how you are, it shouldn't mold you into the kind of person that it dictates you to be. And…we learn from our mistakes."

She paused, looking away from him for a split second. "I…don't want to lose you."

The last words she said were so soft that Enishi barely caught them. Mixed feelings rose in him. He was touched by her words and surprised by them at the same time. The stubbornness that kept her from accepting too much help from her injury showed on her face as well as sincerity. She meant what she said.

Their bodies had inched closer to one another as she talked; their faces were only as far as noses apart. And without thinking, Enishi let himself indulge in the moment where nothing could interrupt them in this darkness. As he leaned closer, she closed her eyes. It only let the temptation he kept inside that much greater. Just this once he could…

But his conscious kicked in, and he gave her a chaste, lingering kiss at the corner of her lips.

"_Arigatou_," he whispered as he opened his eyes. "Is it all right if we leave before dawn?"

Yumiko let out a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding until he whispered against her cheek, his warm breath tickling her skin. She took a moment to compose herself and nodded, opening her eyes.

"That's fine…" she agreed.

He quickly got up lest the emotions get the best of him again. "I'll go pack. You don't have to worry about getting up."

And he left her there sitting on the porch as they both began to sort through their thoughts, each wondering at how much had changed between them.

When dawn came, they were no longer there.

* * *

(Elsewhere) 

"Tsuke-_sama_."

The man gave just enough of a glance to acknowledge the other man kneeling in respect behind him. It was nearly dawn now and another day was about to arrive. He had inwardly hoped that this would be another day of progress.

"What is it?" he asked his subordinate.

"One of our informants in the Tokyo area have given us some good news," the other man continued, not daring to look up from the ground. He was glad that Ganboro Tsuke was his superior and not their true master, who proved to have a more of a volatile temper than the man before him now. However, he was not going to push his luck too far.

"Yukishiro Enishi has been found."

Tsuke turned away from the window, glaring down at the man. "Are you certain?"

"Yes. One of our informants had seen him within the Rakuninmura Prefecture, walking in the streets."

"Rakuninmura huh?" Tsuke searched through his mind about what he knew about the area and was surprised that he hadn't thought of searching that area earlier. "Is there an exact location yet?"

"Our man spotted him within the south-eastern area…however, he couldn't go any further."

"I see." Of course. Yukishiro Enishi was a very skilled swordsman; it wouldn't take very long for someone of his caliber to sense someone following him.

"Two children were accompanying him as well," the subordinate added.

"Children?"

"_Hai_. He was apparently taking care of them."

Tsuke contemplated on the possibilities. It struck him as odd that Enishi would care for children, but the possibility wasn't unimaginable. Many orphans would wander into the government-abandoned prefecture, turning into prime targets for yakuza hire if they survived long enough.

"Someone must be harboring him there," he concluded. "Continue to follow him as closely as possible until you find out who that person is. We can't let the government get to him first."

His subordinate lowered his head even further. "Understood."

Tsuke turned back to the window as the other man left, pondering about the information. It would be best to inform his leader of this new information, but something in the back of his mind kept nagging at him as if he was forgetting something. He heard not long ago that someone linked to his leader was staying there, but his mind could not dig up who.

* * *

(Tokyo…) 

It wasn't typical of him to wake up this early, but he had mistakenly promised Tae that he would work earlier today to help her out with something going on with the restaurant. An anniversary of sorts, he recalled.

And so, Myojin Yahiko dragged himself awake at the crack of dawn to get ready for the event. The only other person awake at this time was Kenshin, and the boy could hear the ex-_hitokiri_ humming in the kitchen. His stomach couldn't help but growl as the smells of the morning's breakfast wafted from the windows.

"Oh, _ohayou_, Yahiko," the red head greeted him as he peeked through the doorway. "You're up early this morning _de gozaru_."

"Uh…yeah, Tae-san asked if I could help her the whole day," he explained to the man, scratching the back of his head out of habit. "Something about a ten year anniversary or something like that."

"Is that so? Then there's going to be a lot of people then de gozaru."

The boy's heart plunged at the thought of having to move, carry, and wash all those dishes from the day's customers. Not that he really cared…much.

"Um…yeah," he paused for a moment, lost in train of thought before he said: "So tell Kaoru that I won't be able to practice today and probably won't be back until nighttime."

Kenshin gave the boy his usual smile and nodded. "All right."

Yahiko gave Kenshin a wave before he made a quick dash to the gate and left.

As he walked through the familiar streets that led him to the Akabeko, he wondered to himself what had happened to Yumiko-san the night she left later than usual. He remembered that the following day, Tae left the restaurant to another friend of hers to watch as she went to the police station to see if she could get someone to check on the other woman's whereabouts. It was the news of a murdered man not far from the way that Yumiko usually took to get home that prompted the Akabeko owner to go.

Yumiko came to assist Tae on more than a few occasions at the restaurant, so Yahiko had come to know her as well as he could. She was like a second sister to him and like Tae, he was also worried.

_I wonder where she lives…she never really talked about where she lived in._

For some odd reason, Yahiko decided to actually look where he was going instead of letting his body take him where to go from habit. Despite being so early, people were already mingling out in the streets and shop owners opening their stores, sweeping away any debris that managed to lay in front of their steps. The number of people out weren't nearly as much as compared to late morning, early afternoon; but it was enough to show anybody that the city was ready to begin a new day.

He could spot the familiar shop owners and keepers easily, but when his eyes turned in a different direction, his entire body froze.

Yumiko's outline wasn't very hard to miss nor her trademark bun that was held up by the same dagger-like pin she always wore. The older woman had explained to him that it was a gift that her mother had given to her, but she didn't elaborate when.

However, that wasn't the reason why the boy's blood turned cold. It was the person walking next to her, carrying a satchel over his shoulder with one arm and a girl in the other. His hair was longer, but it was the unmistakable white that had been ingrained into the boy's mind from _that _incident not too long ago. He wore different clothes, but the way the man walked did not change.

And Yahiko merely continued to watch as the couple walked together, nearly side by side had it not been for the boy walking in between them. His brain couldn't register what he was seeing made sense or if he was imagining things. But the way his own body could not will itself to move proved to be more convincing. He knew it was possible, but he didn't think of seeing the man again as a reality.

Yukishiro Enishi was still here.

* * *

_WORDS NOT UNDERSTOOD_ (perhaps) 

wakarimashita – in this sense, it just means "I understand"

ohayou – short for "ohayou gozaimasu", which means "good morning"

arigatou – once again short for "arigatou gozaimasu" which means "thank you"

(name)-sama – an honorific ending, higher than (name)-san

hai -- in the context used, it's just to be affirmative

de gozaru – something that Kenshin always says at the end of his sentences….not exactly sure what it means, though…


End file.
